Seeking Refuge From Biometrics (w/ Zara Rahman)

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Host: J. Khadijah Abdurahman and Ilan Mandel
Music: Drew Lewis

Who is responsible for safeguarding the biometric data of refugees collected in a humanitarian and mass atrocities context? The canonical justification for collecting biometric data in a humanitarian context is to mitigate the risk of fraud by recipients. However, this claim has been thoroughly debunked including because it assumes fraud is most prevalent among recipients rather than the organizations that operate as intermediaries between donors and aid recipients. What is driving this competition between the UNHCR and the World Food Program (WFP) to create and own the largest multinational biometric database? Zara Rahman joins the WBI show to discuss these questions with a focus on how the Rohingya have resisted digital identification schemes that violate their collective autonomy.

Zara Rahman is a researcher, writer and linguist based in Berlin, Germany, and working internationally. She’s currently the Deputy Director at The Engine Room, an international non-profit organisation strengthening the fight for social justice by supporting civil society to use technology and data in strategic, effective and responsible ways. 

**This episode was recorded April 1, 2021, prior to this report being released, but please note Human Rights Watch (HRW) has documented that the UN shared Rohingya Data Without Informed Consent

Links for the Episode:

Myanmar coup: What is happening and why?
Black Lives Matter protesters aren’t being tracked with Covid-19 surveillance tech. Not yet
Rohingya refugees protest, strike against smart ID cards issued in Bangladesh camps
Bangladesh cuts access to mobile phone services for the Rohingya
When technology improves the lives of refugees
Biometrics in the Humanitarian Sector
Automating Inequality | Virginia Eubanks | Macmillan
Denied visibility in official data, millions of transgender Indians can't access benefits
4 Cultural, Social, and Legal Considerations | Biometric Recognition: Challenges and Opportunities
LiveCast Episode 13 Infant Identity Management – ID4Africa
How Our Days Became Numbered: Risk and the Rise of the Statistical Individual, Bouk
Rohingya Refugees Protest, Strike Against Smart ID Cards Issued in Bangladesh Camps
Burma: Amend Biased Citizenship Law
AP Exclusive 'Leave no Tigrayan': In Ethiopia, an ethnicity is erased By CARA ANNAa few
A fiduciary approach to child data governance
DHS/USCIS/PIA-081 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Information Data Share
Tested on millions Non-volunteers (Jordan EyeHood Technology)
Use of Biometric Data to Identify Terrorists: Best Practice or Risky Business?
Palantir and WFP partner to help transform global humanitarian delivery | World Food Programme
Palantir's partnership with the UN World Food Programme has humanitarians worried.
ID 2020 Agenda
Irresponsible Data Risks Registering Rohingya
The Biometric Assemblage: Surveillance, Experimentation, Profit, and the Measuring of Refugee Bodies - Mirca Madianou, 2019
Digital payments to refugees A pathway towards financial inclusion
Bangladesh Will Demand Biometric Data From All SIM Card Users
Sharifa Sultana

Zara Recommends 
Native American DNA — University of Minnesota Press
She Would Be King