What if you could harness the power of the free market to solve the problems of poverty, hunger, and inequality? To some, it sounds impossible. But Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus is doing exactly that.Bonsai People celebrates Yunus’ extraordinary humanitarian work, which started by lending [dollar sign]27 to 42 people out of his own pocket and has now grown to helping 1 out of every 1,000 people on earth. But he didn’t stop there - whenever...

As privacy has become more of a concern, many technology service providers are instituting more and stronger encryption—including biometric finger scans to unlock phones and access data. But without a "back door"for government access, the intelligence community argues, national security is at risk. Unpack the tension from a Fifth Amendment perspective.

Love Hate Love weaves together the stories of three families whose lives were torn apart by some of the most notorious terrorist attacks of the 21st century, yet refused to succumb to despair or hate.. Liz Alderman’s son Peter was murdered in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Esther Hyman’s only sister and a gifted artist was killed in the 2005 bus bombings in London. Australian business owner Ben Tullipan lost both his legs when a one-ton...

The government and private industries are using a vast cache of information about each of us: our travel patterns, our web browsing habits, our purchasing preferences, and more. Efforts to decide upon and enact laws and policies trail behind new developments in technology, and this lecture examines the potential inherent in such deep and widespread data—as well as the threat it poses to privacy and anonymity.

Eye scans and facial recognition software were once the purview of science fiction, but now biometric identification is becoming commonplace. Here, examine the different forms of biometric screening, from fingerprinting to DNA analysis. While there are many benefits to this technology, you’ll also see the darker side of this data unleashed in the world.

The democratization of newsgathering and the expansion of the surveillance state have amplified tensions over the transparency of government operations. Trace the recent history of the news media from the Pentagon Papers to Wikileaks, and draw your own conclusions about what information should be published and who should be allowed to publish it.

You are where you go—at least according to advertisers, divorce attorneys, and criminal investigators. Take a look at how geolocation data is gathered, ranging from the voluntarily given (such as a social media check-in) to the improperly acquired (such as cell phone spying). Then see what investigators can do with such data.

Look toward the future and examine the possibilities of quantum computing, human-computer interface, and artificial intelligence. These technological changes are going to require each of us to make decisions about privacy and security—for ourselves and for future generations. Recap what you’ve learned to determine your vision of the best way forward from here.

Start by considering the tension between surveillance and the rule of law. While the pace of technological change is extremely rapid, laws are slow to keep up. Worse, the institutions responsible for creating laws often have internal conflicts about the role of privacy and security—as illustrated by a dramatic face-off over John Ashcroft’s hospital bed.

Spycraft used to be limited to physical surveillance and electronic communications, but now, thanks to the Internet, hacking and digital espionage are the wave of the future. Investigate the techniques by which governments infiltrate each other, ponder the ethics of these actions, and think through the appropriate responses.