Data Justice in Mexico's Multiveillant Society: How big data is reshaping the struggle for human rights and political freedoms

2017年6月19日，《纽约时报》揭露了墨西哥政府如何部署专有间谍软件--(表面上)获得打击有组织犯罪和恐怖主义的许可--对人权捍卫者、持批评态度的记者和政治对手进行监控。这次曝光是通过加拿大的公民实验室、墨西哥的维基解密以及追踪以色列NSO集团向墨西哥情报人员提供的软件的非政府组织网络的独特合作实现的。受这种监听的例子--来自下面的数据监听--的启发，我们将研究和试验新形式的数据正义：被理解为利用现有数据的财富来促进个人和集体自由的持续努力，同时考虑到塑造我们世界的特定形式的压迫和不平等。在多元化的社会中，监视由情报界、腐败的联邦/地方当局以及模糊的权力犯罪与卡特尔和有组织犯罪的联系管理，但也由寻求正义和安全的公民和非政府组织管理。因此，还必须认识到，这个多元化的社会包括反监视创新和被目标激活的抵抗地点。墨西哥因其高犯罪率和薄弱的法治而不断受到批评：超过16万人死于暴力；约3万人失踪；绑架事件估计每年遇到数万名受害者；以及世界上保护记者和人权捍卫者最糟糕的记录之一。然而，尚未得到重大关注或学术审查的是，墨西哥正在成为新形式监视(及其抵抗)的实验室。墨西哥的场景提供了一个独特的机会，让我们了解大数据、(言论、行动和集会自由)以及威权和犯罪冲动(国家和非国家)之间的互动所产生的当代困境。我们的项目将创建一个理论/方法包，通过人种学研究、移动应用程序、参与性行动研究和大数据研讨会来参与多监控和数据正义。我们为缺乏监管、执法和安全是常态的政治-法律场景而量身定做；在这种场景中，数据治理的配置挑战了国家和企业的大规模数据监控努力，我们的目标是创建第一个数据正义开源工具。通过对墨西哥多元化社会的深入人种学理解，我们将使迄今为止只有资金充裕的组织才能获得的新的集体形式的数据共享、数据收集和数据验证成为可能。面对这一挑战，我们希望利用互联和社交媒体共享的优势。首先，我们将通过一本互动的数字手册分享人权捍卫者的数据实践，该手册将引导访问者访问工具、信息图表、应用程序和视频，以保持在线的数字安全，同时也参与大数据背后的逻辑和算法，并发现和识别社交媒体中的虚假信息策略。我们认为这将增强个人数据的公正性。在集体战线上，我们将开发政府应用程序，在数据共享充斥着不信任的情况下，应对大规模组织、基层安全和侵犯人权行为证据收集带来的挑战。治理应用程序将允许用户快速决定要解决什么问题，他们需要什么类型的投票和决策，以及在每个场景中参与创建共享数字平台的每个用户都将享受的访问、加密和授权类型。简而言之，我们将共同制定新的途径来实践，改善和维护墨西哥的数据正义，并希望(通过我们的研究的影响)在世界各地的其他场景中使用。

On June 19th, 2017, the New York Times uncovered how the Mexican government was deploying proprietary spyware -(ostensibly) licensed to combat organised crime and terrorism- to conduct surveillance on human rights defenders, critical journalists and political opponents. This exposé was possible via the unique collaboration of 'Citizen Lab' in Canada, WikiLeaks Mexico, and a network of NGOs that tracked the software supplied by the Israeli NSO Group to Mexican intelligence agents. Inspired by this example of sousveillance-the dataveillance from below-we will examine and experiment with new forms of data justice: understood as the continuous effort to use the wealth of available data to promote personal and collective freedoms, taking into account the particular forms of oppression and inequality that shape our world. In the multiveillant society surveillance is run by the intelligence community, by corrupt federal/local authorities, as well as blurred power-crime connections to cartels and organised crime, but also by citizens and NGOs searching for justice and security. Thus, the multiveillant society must also be recognised as including the counter-surveillance innovations and the sites of resistance that have been activated by those targeted.Mexico draws constant critical attention for its high-levels of crime and weak rule-of-law: more than 160,000 deaths due to violence; some 30,000-people estimated to have been 'disappeared'; kidnappings estimated to run into tens of thousands of victims every year; and, one of the world's worst records for protection of journalists and human rights defenders. However, what has not yet received significant attention, or academic scrutiny is Mexico's emergence as a laboratory for new forms of surveillance (and its resistance). The Mexican scenario fosters a unique opportunity to understand contemporary dilemmas born from the interaction between big data, freedom (of speech, movement, and assembly), and authoritarian and criminal impulses (state and non-state).Our project will create a theory/methods package to engage with multiveillance and data justice, through ethnographic research, mobile apps, participatory action research and big-data workshops. Tailored to a politico-legal scenario where the absence of regulation, enforcement and security are the norm; a setting where configurations of data-governance challenge state-corporate efforts of mass dataveillance, we aim to create the first data justice open source tool. Through a deep ethnographic understanding of Mexico's multiveillant society we will make possible new collective forms of data-sharing, data-gathering and data-verification, that so far have only been available to well-funded organisations. In the face of this challenge we want to take advantage of connectedness and social media sharing. To begin with, we will share the data-practices of human rights defenders through an interactive digital handbook that will guide visitors to tools, infographics, apps and videos to stay digitally safe online, but also to engage with the logics and algorithms behind big data and to spot and recognise tactics of disinformation in social media. This we think will enhance personal data-justice. In the collective front we will develop The Govern-app that will tackle the challenges posed by large scale organisation, grass-root security and evidence gathering of human rights violations, in scenarios in which data sharing is permeated by distrust. T he govern-app would allow users to quickly decide what issues to tackle, what are the types of voting and decision making they need, and the types of access, encryption and authority each of the users involved in the creation of the shared digital platform in each scenario will enjoy.In short, we will co-produce new avenues to practice, to improve and to assert data justice in Mexico, and hopefully (through the impact of our research) in other scenarios around the world.