The Impact Of Surveillance Tech On Marginalized Populations With Lydia X. Z. Brown Leading With Empathy & Allyship

Lydia X. Z. Brown, Policy Counsel for Privacy & Data at the Center for Democracy & Technology, joins Melinda in an enlightening discussion around the impact of surveillance tech on marginalized populations. They address the importance of understanding the threats of surveillance in our daily lives brought on by algorithmic technologies used in education, policing, healthcare, and the workplace, and they discuss how this tech can be disproportionately damaging to people of color and people with disabilities. Lydia also shares what actions are needed to protect health data following the overturning of Roe v. Wade and how individuals and organizations should approach data privacy to protect everyone's rights and advocate for marginalized communities who are harmed by surveillance technologies.


About Lydia X. Z. Brown (they/them)

Lydia X. Z. Brown is an advocate, organizer, attorney, strategist, and writer whose work focuses on interpersonal and state violence against disabled people at the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, faith, language, and nation. Lydia is Policy Counsel for Privacy & Data at the Center for Democracy & Technology, focused on algorithmic discrimination and disability; Director of Policy, Advocacy, & External Affairs at the Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network; and founding executive director of the Autistic People of Color Fund. Lydia is an adjunct lecturer in the Women's and Gender Studies Program and the Disability Studies Program at Georgetown University, as well as the Self-Advocacy Discipline Coordinator for the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Fellowship program. They are also an adjunct professorial lecturer in American Studies in the Department of Critical Race, Gender, and Cultural Studies at American University. They are co-president of the Disability Rights Bar Association, a commissioner on the American Bar Association’s Commission on Disability Rights, and Disability Justice Committee representative on the National Lawyers Guild board. Lydia is currently creating the Disability Justice Wisdom Tarot. Often, their most important work has no title, job description, or funding, and probably never will.


To join us for our monthly live event and find educational resources, visit ally.cc


Connect With Lydia

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lydiaxzbrown
Facebook: facebook.com/autistic.hoya
Twitter: twitter.com/autistichoya
Instagram: instagram.com/autistichoya

Connect With Us

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Production Team

Creator & Host: Melinda Briana Epler
Co-Producers: Renzo Santos & Christina Swindlehurst Chan
Creative Director @ Podcast Rocket: Rob Scheerbarth


[Image description: LEA promo and photos of Lydia, an East Asian person with short black and teal hair, glasses, a dark blue suit, and a diamond-pattern tie, and host Melinda Briana Epler, a White woman with red hair, glasses, and orange s
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