data sovereignty

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Big Brother is Watching You - Episode 678 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast

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In this episode of the podcast, we welcome back Sascha Meinrath for a timely and urgent conversation about surveillance, digital infrastructure, and the growing tension between connectivity and civil liberties.

Sascha explores how modern broadband networks are increasingly intertwined with systems of data extraction, monitoring, and behavioral tracking. 

The conversation digs into how surveillance operates at multiple levels: through corporate data collection, government monitoring, and emerging technologies that blur the line between public safety and privacy intrusion.

This episode challenges us to think beyond speed and access, and to grapple with what kind of digital future we are actually building.

If communities are investing in digital infrastructure, Sascha argues, they must also ask: Who controls the data? Who benefits? And who is being watched?

This show is 44 minutes long and can be played on this page or via Apple Podcasts or the tool of your choice using this feed. 

You can also check out the video version via YouTube.

Transcript below.

We want your feedback and suggestions for the show-please e-mail us or leave a comment below.

Listen to other episodes or view all episodes in our index. See other podcasts from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

Thanks to Arne Huseby for the music. The song is Warm Duck Shuffle and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license

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No-Cost GIS Resources Available to Tribes Through BIA

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Geospatial software licenses and training can be a huge help to Tribes building their own broadband networks, and federally recognized Tribes can access a number of geospatial resources at no cost.

Since 2002, the Department of the Interior has held an agreement with Esri, a leading GIS software, to make licenses and training available to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the governments of federally recognized Tribes.

The licenses and training are administered under the BIA’s Branch of Geospatial Support (BOGS), which “support[s] Tribes’ land management projects such as irrigation, floodplain analysis, forestry harvesting, wildfire analysis, oil and gas management, and other economic analysis,” but the resources have broadband applications well.

BOGS offers free geospatial software, geospatial training, and geospatial technical assistance to more than 900 BIA employees and 4,000 Tribal personnel.

Geographic information system (GIS) resources allow Tribes to map their networks as they are built, greatly assisting with documentation. GIS can be used to document culturally or environmentally sensitive areas, which is especially relevant if Tribes are working with contractors unfamiliar with the area.

Tribes can also leverage GIS to collect their own location data, and submit this data to the FCC to improve the agency’s maps, which are notoriously inaccurate on Tribal lands. Additionally, Tribes with existing networks can use mapping resources to compile data to feed into submission reports to the FCC as the FCC’s new reporting requirements will require some form of GIS.

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