a conversation about tech, human rights, and internet freedom brought to you by the Tor Project
PrivChat is a fundraising event series held to raise donations for the Tor Project. Through PrivChat, we will bring you important information related to what is happening in tech, human rights, and internet freedom by convening experts for a chat with our community.
Chapter #1 - Online Privacy in 2020: Activism & COVID-19
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit most countries around the world, many governments looked for technology to trace the spread of the virus in order to fight the pandemic. Contact tracing practices and technologies raised many questions about privacy, particularly: is it possible to trace the virus while respecting people's privacy? Now amidst the uprising in the U.S. against systemic racism, followed by protests all around the world, the central question about contact tracing, privacy, and surveillance becomes critical. Can the technology used for tracking the virus be used to track protesters? Will it be? For our first ever PrivChat, the Tor Project is bringing you three amazing guests to chat with us about privacy in this context.
Roger Dingledine is president and co-founder of the Tor Project, a nonprofit that develops free and open source software to protect people from tracking, censorship, and surveillance online. Wearing one hat, Roger works with journalists and activists on many continents to help them understand and defend against the threats they face. Wearing another, he is a lead researcher in the online anonymity field, coordinating and mentoring academic researchers working on Tor-related topics. Since 2002 he has helped organize the yearly international Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS). Among his achievements, Roger was chosen by the MIT Technology Review as one of its top 35 innovators under 35, he co-authored the Tor design paper that won the Usenix Security "Test of Time" award, and he has been recognized by Foreign Policy magazine as one of its top 100 global thinkers.
Carmela Troncoso is an Assistant Professor at EPFL (Switzerland) where she heads the SPRING Lab. She holds a Master's degree in Telecommunication Engineering from the University of Vigo (2006) and a Ph.D. in Engineering from the KU Leuven (2011). Before arriving to EPFL she was a Faculty member at the IMDEA Software Institute (Spain) for 2 years; the Security and Privacy Technical Lead at Gradiant working closely with industry to deliver secure and privacy friendly solutions to the market for 4 years; and a pos-doctoral researcher at the COSIC Group. Carmela's research focuses on security and privacy. Her thesis “Design and Analysis methods for Privacy Technologies” received the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics Security and Trust Management Best Ph.D. Thesis Award; and her work on Privacy Engineering received the CNIL-INRIA Privacy Protection Award 2017. She regularly publishes in the most prestigious venues in Security (e.g. ACM Conference on Computer Security or USENIX Security Symposium) and Privacy (Privacy Enhancing Technologies).
Daniel Kahn Gillmor is a Senior Staff Technologist for ACLU\u2019s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, focused on the way our technical infrastructure shapes society and impacts civil liberties. As a free software developer and member of the Debian project, he contributes to fundamental tools that shape the possibilities of our information-rich environment. As a participant in the IETF he fosters the creation of new generations of networking and cryptographic protocols designed and optimized for privacy and security. He is an anti-surveillance advocate for privacy, justice, free speech, and data sovereignty. Daniel is a graduate of Brown University’s computer science program.
Matt Mitchell is a hacker and Tech Fellow at The Ford Foundation. Matt is working with the BUILD and Technology and Society teams at Ford Foundation to develop digital security strategy, technical assistance offerings, and safety and security measures for the foundation’s grantee partners. Committed to using his digital skills — as hacker, developer, operational security trainer, security researcher, and data journalist — for good, Matt has worked in various capacities at the intersection of technology and social justice. Formerly the Director of Digital Safety & Privacy for Tactical Tech (also known as the Tactical Technology Collective). Matt worked leading security training efforts, curricula, and organizational security for Tactical Tech in their mission to raise awareness about privacy, provide tools for digital security, and mobilize people to turn information into action. Matt is a well known security researcher, operational security trainer, and data journalist who founded & leads CryptoHarlem, impromptu workshops teaching basic cryptography tools to the predominately African American community in upper Manhattan.
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