This week we're speaking to Professor Edgar Whitley - an expert on the design and implementation of ID systems. Links- More about Edgar: https://www.lse.ac.uk/people/edgar-whitley- More about the London School of Economics and ID: https://www.lse.ac.uk/research/research-impact-case-studies/scrapping-costly-controversial-proposals-identity-cards- Gus and Edgar's joint publications: - Global challenges for identity policies: https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Global_Challenges_for_Identity_Policies.html?id=P7hsCwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y - Global Identity Policies and Technology:Do we Understand the Question? An open access paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1758-5899.2010.00028.x - Book chapter on Aadhaar: https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/90490/- Edgar's report on Women and ID: https://silkstart.s3.amazonaws.com/1967006c-a430-414e-9982-75e204478d6e.pdf- More information on Aadhaar in India: https://privacyinternational.org/news-analysis/819/aadhaar-scheme-faq- The Indian Supreme Court decision: https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/2299/initial-analysis-indian-supreme-court-decision-aadhaar and https://www.scobserver.in/cases/beghar-foundation-ks-puttaswamy-aadhaar-review-case-background/- The Windrush scandal: https://jcwi.org.uk/reportsbriefings/windrush-scandal-explained/- Interview with people in Kenya who had been double registered: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLz3h0TjXz7gXB4xg4WNdg9_8JyBftx_kP- Yes Minister TV show: https://archive.org/details/yes-minister-1980-1984 including the famous Big Brother episode: https://archive.org/details/yes-minister-1980-1984/Yes+Minister+-+S01E04+-+Big+Brother.mp4- The Clarkson toothpick incident: https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/nationals/jeremy-clarkson-victim-of-id-fraud-after-publishing-bank-details/- The Washington Post raid: https://theintercept.com/2026/01/30/washington-post-hannah-natanson-fbi-biometrics-unlock-phone/Previous podcasts:- Double Registration - The trouble with Identity in Kenya: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65VVbcXVK_0&feature=youtu.be

This week we're discussing what happens when AI is trained on a dead person's data to bring them back as a chatbot. Find out more from Gus and Caitlin, and their guest James Muldoon, Reader in Management at Essex Business School and Research Associate at the Oxford Internet Institute, about the ethics, the grief, and the companies making it happen.

Links

- https://jamesmuldoon.org

- https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571399277-love-machines/

This week we're talking to Ben Wizner from the American Civil Liberties Union about what the ACLU have been doing in the first year of Trump's second term, what the difference is between this time and last time, and how an earth they can keep up.

Links

• ACLU report: https://www.aclu.org/campaigns-initiatives/aclu-vs-trump
• Kyllo case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyllo_v._United_States
• Underground Empire book: https://henryfarrell.net/underground-empire-2/
• Swift work between PI and ACLU: https://privacyinternational.org/blog/1355/pi-and-aclu-show-swift-auditor-has-extensive-ties-us-government
• Yale lectures on National Security law: https://epe.yale.edu/videos/above-law-or-beneath-it-how-national-security-law-subverts-accountability-and-weakens-0
• Asylum for White South Africans: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/us/politics/trump-refugee-admissions-white-south-africans.html
• FISA reauth: https://theintercept.com/2026/01/29/nsa-702-fisa-surveillance/