public
interest
tech lab
interest
tech lab
We help shape the future of
technology and society to advance equity, expand opportunity and protect basic rights and liberties.
technology and society to advance equity, expand opportunity and protect basic rights and liberties.
pillars
Three pillars guide the Public Interest Tech Lab’s work to create a future where
justice,
accountability and equity are
at the forefront of technological and societal change.
endeavor
We create, develop, and provide technologies that protect individual rights and improve people’s
lives.
equip
We facilitate research and development to make technology that advances justice and equity.
connect
We provide avenues for knowledge sharing about public interest tech and connect the dot across
disciplines with
collaborations within Harvard and various national networks.
endeavor
We create, develop, and
provide
technologies that protect individual rights and improve people’s lives.Public Interest Tech Lab projects include:
A platform that gives people the opportunity to control their
own personal
data from apps and web services.
An app that allows people to communicate using preformatted messages to others who
are nearby.
A program that used sensors to track mobile devices within 6
feet of each
other for
privacy-preserving
COVID-19 contact tracing.
An app that helps people who want a COVID-19 vaccination get
vaccinated, even
if they
have no Internet
access or cannot navigate a
website.
A program that creates and assesses technologies, policies and
data so that
society can share data freely with
guarantees of privacy protection.
An interactive map that allows quick, accurate and highly
interactive
analysis on live census response rates. Census
Tracker is designed to demonstrate demographic impacts on census response rates in
each community
and provide an easy to
use tool for users of any background.
equip
We facilitate research and
development to
make technology that advances justice and equity.
SUPPORTIVE TOOL SUPPLIER
We provide an assortment of tools to enrich and accelerate
work by
scholars and researchers.
PUBLIC INTEREST STARTUP INCUBATOR
We provide help to those who want to launch a public
interest technology
startup.
Technology and Data Provider
We provide access to technology and data for public interest
research and
development.
connect
WE PROVIDE AVENUES FOR
KNOWLEDGE SHARING ABOUT PUBLIC INTEREST TECH AND CONNECT THE DOTS ACROSS DISCIPLINES WITH
COLLABORATIONS WITHIN HARVARD AND THE NATIONAL NETWORKS LISTED BELOW.
We are housed in the Shorenstein Center and collaborate with
colleagues on
media and on disinformation.
Our Data Privacy Lab is housed in the Institute for
Quantitative Social
Science where we conduct research.
We support research for students in the Program in Tech
Science.
We publish the Journal of Technology Science: the latest
studies on
unforeseen consequences of tech and what to do about them.
We sponsor the Tech Science Research Network that consists of
researchers and
scholars from 50 schools.
We publish investigation plans to help onboard research by
others in public
interest tech.