Technology Pill

This week we're talking to Joan Musenya about life in Kenya as a young person - from mobile money, to data protection, to government surveillance.

Joan is a member of the Kenyan Community Advisory Team (K-CAT) helping to steer the Digital Health and Rights Project.

Links
- Digital Health and Rights Project report: https://digitalhealthandrights.com/resource-library/report-paying-the-costs-of-connection/
- Find more from Joan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joan-musenya/
- PI's low cost tech work: https://www.privacyinternational.org/campaigns/privacy-shouldnt-be-luxury
- More about shame based debt collection in Kenya: https://biznakenya.com/digital-lenders-kenya-debt-collection-warning/
- More about what to do if you're experiencing harassment from debt collectors in Kenya: https://dealfish.co.ke/2025/03/mobile-loan-recovery-harassment-in.html
- More about the history of M-Pesa: https://www.forbes.com/sites/christianstadler/2024/06/11/m-pesa-why-the-worlds-first-large-mobile-payment-platform-keeps-on-winning/
- CNN apology to Kenya: https://www.newtimes.co.rw/article/121633/Latest%20News/cnn-boss-apologizes-to-kenya-over-terrorism-slur
- PI's work on sim card registration: https://privacyinternational.org/learn/sim-card-registration

This week we're joined by Professor Peter Asaro from Stop Killer Robots, and Frank Slijper, Arms trade project lead at PAX to discuss military uses of AI, including Anthropic's stand-off with the US Department of Defense.

Please note this podcast was recorded on the 20th March.**Links**Stop Killer Robots: https://www.stopkillerrobots.org/stop-killer-robots/Pax: https://paxforpeace.nl/who-we-are/organization/Stop Killer Robots at the UN: https://www.stopkillerrobots.org/news/reports-of-ai-enabled-targeting-in-iran-bring-real-world-impacts-to-the-un/Stop Killer Robots on Anthropic stand off: https://www.stopkillerrobots.org/news/press-release-stop-killer-robots-responds-to-the-anthropic-pentagon-standoff/**The Case**- The Anthropic case: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq571w5vllxo- The Anthropic supply chain designation: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn5g3z3xe65o- Access, Tech Justice, and more's amicus: https://techjusticelaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Anthropic-amicus-press-release_updated.pdf**War and AI systems**- : https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/12/who-bombed-the-iranian-girls-school-killing-more-than-170-what-we-know- Lavender and Where's Daddy: https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/- Project Maven: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/project-maven-ai-us-airstrike-iraq-anthropic-b2929138.html- More on Project Maven: https://www.businessinsider.com/palantir-project-maven-ai-demonstration-pentagon-2026-3?op=1- More on Project Maven: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Maven

This week we're speaking to Professor Edgar Whitley - an expert on the design and implementation of ID systems. Links- More about Edgar: https://www.lse.ac.uk/people/edgar-whitley- More about the London School of Economics and ID: https://www.lse.ac.uk/research/research-impact-case-studies/scrapping-costly-controversial-proposals-identity-cards- Gus and Edgar's joint publications: - Global challenges for identity policies: https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Global_Challenges_for_Identity_Policies.html?id=P7hsCwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y - Global Identity Policies and Technology:Do we Understand the Question? An open access paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1758-5899.2010.00028.x - Book chapter on Aadhaar: https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/90490/- Edgar's report on Women and ID: https://silkstart.s3.amazonaws.com/1967006c-a430-414e-9982-75e204478d6e.pdf- More information on Aadhaar in India: https://privacyinternational.org/news-analysis/819/aadhaar-scheme-faq- The Indian Supreme Court decision: https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/2299/initial-analysis-indian-supreme-court-decision-aadhaar and https://www.scobserver.in/cases/beghar-foundation-ks-puttaswamy-aadhaar-review-case-background/- The Windrush scandal: https://jcwi.org.uk/reportsbriefings/windrush-scandal-explained/- Interview with people in Kenya who had been double registered: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLz3h0TjXz7gXB4xg4WNdg9_8JyBftx_kP- Yes Minister TV show: https://archive.org/details/yes-minister-1980-1984 including the famous Big Brother episode: https://archive.org/details/yes-minister-1980-1984/Yes+Minister+-+S01E04+-+Big+Brother.mp4- The Clarkson toothpick incident: https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/nationals/jeremy-clarkson-victim-of-id-fraud-after-publishing-bank-details/- The Washington Post raid: https://theintercept.com/2026/01/30/washington-post-hannah-natanson-fbi-biometrics-unlock-phone/Previous podcasts:- Double Registration - The trouble with Identity in Kenya: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65VVbcXVK_0&feature=youtu.be

This week we're discussing what happens when AI is trained on a dead person's data to bring them back as a chatbot. Find out more from Gus and Caitlin, and their guest James Muldoon, Reader in Management at Essex Business School and Research Associate at the Oxford Internet Institute, about the ethics, the grief, and the companies making it happen.
Links
- https://jamesmuldoon.org
- https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571399277-love-machines/

This week we're talking to Ben Wizner from the American Civil Liberties Union about what the ACLU have been doing in the first year of Trump's second term, what the difference is between this time and last time, and how an earth they can keep up.

Links
ACLU report: https://www.aclu.org/campaigns-initiatives/aclu-vs-trump
Kyllo case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyllo_v._United_States
Underground Empire book: https://henryfarrell.net/underground-empire-2/
Swift work between PI and ACLU: https://privacyinternational.org/blog/1355/pi-and-aclu-show-swift-auditor-has-extensive-ties-us-government
Yale lectures on National Security law: https://epe.yale.edu/videos/above-law-or-beneath-it-how-national-security-law-subverts-accountability-and-weakens-0
Asylum for White South Africans: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/us/politics/trump-refugee-admissions-white-south-africans.html
FISA reauth: https://theintercept.com/2026/01/29/nsa-702-fisa-surveillance/