This week, we have Johanna Gunawan as the host and Kentrell Owens from the University of Washington as a guest.

In this episode, we discuss surveillance – a major concern for everyone in this always-on day and age. Surveillance has a long and complicated history and carries many risks for those being watched, especially so when conducting extremely invasive monitoring of protected groups. Specifically, today we’re looking at electronic monitoring apps used for tracking incarcerated populations. You might be more familiar with the concept of ankle monitors as often used for parole; now, smartphone apps provide a modernized alternative that offers stakeholders more features but also has access to much more data than their predecessors.

To help us learn more about the technical, societal, and legal risks of e-monitoring apps, we have Kentrell Owens, a PhD Candidate. In his paper, titled “Electronic Monitoring Smartphone Apps: An Analysis of Risks from Technical, Human-Centered, and Legal Perspectives,” Kentrell and co-authors systematically analyze sixteen e-monitoring apps across multiple vectors to get a better understanding of the e-monitoring ecosystem.