While juggling her graduate studies in computer science at the University of Washington, Yael Eiger has been volunteering at two prisons in the Seattle metro area to teach math and other subjects. Her weekly visits exposed her to technologies such as electronic kiosks and tablets that incarcerated people are required to use for communicating with loved ones or for buying and playing digital content.
Eiger, who is a PhD candidate at UW’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, convened focus groups with formerly incarcerated people and their loved ones to find out how the use of these devices affected them. The focus groups revealed widespread surveillance and censorship of messages, video calls and even educational content downloaded onto the tablets. Participants also reported recurring glitches and delays with video calls and messages they sent, along with steep charges and hidden fees they had to pay — even if the calls dropped or the messages failed to arrive.
Another paper Eiger recently published highlights how the lack of digital literacy skills makes formerly incarcerated people especially vulnerable to phishing attacks and online scams.
Eiger joins us to share her research findings and the latest technologies being sold and marketed to law enforcement and corrections officials.
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