Software is increasingly used to make huge decisions about people's lives and often these decisions are made with little transparency or accountability to individuals. If there is any place where transparency, third-party review, adversarial testing and true accountability is essential, it is the criminal justice system. Nevertheless, proprietary software is used throughout the system, and the trade secrets of software vendors are regularly deemed more important than the rights of the accused to understand and challenge decisions made by these complex systems. In this talk, we will lay out the map of software in this space from DNA testing to facial recognition to estimating the likelihood that someone will commit a future crime. We will detail the substantial hurdles that prevent oversight and stunning examples of real problems found when hard won third-party review is finally achieved. Finally, we will outline what you as a concerned citizen/hacker can do. Nathan Adams will demo his findings from reviewing NYC's FST source code, which was finally made public by a federal judge after years of the city's lab fighting disclosure or even review. Jerome Greco will provide his insight into the wider world of software used in the criminal justice system—from technology that law enforcement admits to using but expects the public to trust without question to technology that law enforcement denies when the evidence says otherwise. Jeanna Matthews will talk about the wider space of algorithmic accountability and transparency and why even open source software is not enough.
Speakers:
- Dr. Jeanna N. Matthews, Associate Professor, Clarkson University and Fellow, Data and Society
- Nathan Adams, Systems Engineer, Forensic Bioinformatic Services
- Jerome Greco, Digital Forensics Staff Attorney, Legal Aid Society
Dr. Jeanna N. Matthews
Dr. Matthews is an associate professor of Computer Science at Clarkson University and a 2017-18 fellow at Data and Society. She is member of the Executive Committee of US-ACM, the U.S. Public Policy Committee of ACM and a founding co-chair of their subcommittee on algorithmic transparency and accountability. She was a speaker and DEF CON 23 and 24, both times on the topic of vulnerabilities in virtual networks. Her broader research interests include virtualization, cloud computing, computer security, computer networks and operating systems. Jeanna received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley and is an ACM Distinguished Speaker.
@jeanna_matthews
Nathan Adams
Nathan Adams works as a Systems Engineer in Ohio at the forensic DNA consulting firm Forensic Bioinformatic Services. He reviews DNA analyses performed in criminal cases in the US, the UK, and Australia. His focus includes DNA mixture interpretation, statistical weightings of evidence, probabilistic genotyping, and software development. When its disclosure was ordered by a federal judge in 2016, Nathan was part of the first team to independently examine FST, NYC's DNA mixture interpretation program. He helped identify and evaluate previously undisclosed behaviors of the software. Following the team's review and a motion filed by Yale's Media Freedom center and ProPublica, the judge recently ordered the release of the FST source code, which allowed open discourse for the first time since FST was brought online in 2011. He has a BS in Computer Science and is working on an MS in the same, both at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.
Jerome Greco
Jerome Greco is a public defender in the Digital Forensics Unit of the Legal Aid Society in New York City. Along with four analysts, he works with attorneys and investigators in all five boroughs on issues involving historical cell-site location information, cell phone extraction, electronic surveillance technology, social media, and hard drive analysis, among other fields. He is currently engaged in challenging the NYPD's use of cell-site simulators, facial recognition, and the execution of overbroad search warrants for electronic devices. Prior to his work with the Digital Forensics Unit, he was a trial attorney in the Legal Aid Society's Manhattan and Staten Island criminal defense offices. He graduated magna cum laude from New York Law School in 2011 and received his B.A. from Columbia University in 2008.
@JeromeDGreco
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