Three years ago, we founded People’s Tech and Philly Tech Justice with a clear mission: make Philly’s use of tech transparent and accountable to everyday Philadelphians, not just the profits of billionaires and corporations.
As City Council negotiated a budget that spent tens of millions of dollars on AI and surveillance, we pulled up with questions: What technology is the city buying? Who is selling it? How will it be used? Is our privacy being violated? Who is being harmed? And what do we want in our city instead of racist surveillance technology?
On September 22nd, we’re finally getting answers: We’re helping lead a City Council hearing on Philly’s use of AI and surveillance, and we need you there.
We’ve met with hundreds of Philadelphians, community organizations, and tech experts, and we’ve heard the horror stories:
- In Philly, children’s private location data was shared with police without a warrant or parent’s consent.
- In Pittsburgh, an algorithm flagged Black parents for child removal twice as often white parents.
- Governor Shapiro handed Jeff Bezos and Amazon a sweetheart deal for AI data centers that robbed taxpayers of $43 million, polluted our water, raised utility rates sky high, and emitted cancer-causing chemicals.
Big tech CEOs push these technologies and make billions off our harm and suffering, while our governments buy the products to help them do it.
Tech bros may be running the White House and board rooms, but in Philly we bow to no one.
Join us at PhillyCam for the City Council hearing, between Market and Chestnut on 7th, to make your voice heard.
Join us on September 22nd at PhillyCam for the hearing on AI.
City Council has a responsibility to step up and protect us from harmful uses of tech, and prioritize tech that solves our most urgent problems, not further enriching the wealthiest CEOs.