2013, A Year in Review for Privacy

Transcript

1. 2013, A Year in Review for Privacy by AJ Bahnken, @ajvbahnken SB #TA3M
2. 2013 was the “Year of Privacy” • As many have stated, this past year has been the Year of Privacy. • The year of realizations and revelations in privacy issues and in fighting back against forced exposure. • With everything that has occurred, this much is clear: We have learned a lot this last year.
3. We've learned that we can't trust the technology behind our proprietary consumer products. • PRISM • We now have explicit examples of voluntary contributions. • Verizon is collecting millions of phone records daily • In 2012 The Huffington Post had reported that Verizon and AT&T had set up shop to make money from the frequent data requests coming from the government. • EFF issued a security report on the state of web encryption (bit.ly/1f1eeYd) • For alternatives, check out http://prism-break.org
4. We learned that centralized power has failed us. • MUSCULAR • This is the unwilling side, where PRISM was the more willing side. • In the case where everyone fought back against this data collection, the NSA would still find a loophole. • This shines a bright light on the fallacies of centralized power on the web.
5. We learned that we must encrypt everything. • Just because there is mass surveillance going on does not mean that we need to stop communicating electronically. We just need to be smarter about it. • Snowden said that "good encryption still works". • OTR (https://otr.cypherpunks.ca/), Truecrypt (http://www.truecrypt. org/), and GnuPG (http://www.gnupg.org/). Also, The EFF’s Surveillance Self-Defense project (https://ssd.eff.org/) contains more in-depth information on this topic.
6. We learned that others won't always take the stand for us. • Personally, this one was the most heartbreaking revelations of the year. • Mediastan • Do-Not-Track • The tech giants that were targeted in PRISM and MUSCULAR took far too long to take a stand. • EFF, the ACLU, the Open Technology Institute, EPIC, Glenn Greenwald, Jacob Appelbaum, and Laura Poitras, Der Spiegel, The Guardian, and O Globo.
7. To Summarize
8. • We learned that the conspiracy theories of yesterday are in fact a reality [1]. • We learned about the willing and unwilling interception of data from consumer software [2]. • We learned about the recording of all of our phone calls [3], and that the same companies that are providing us with this technology are now profiting from this interception [4]. • We learned about forced tapping of the major telecom companies in the European Union [5]. • We learned that many public webmail providers are lacking up- to-date web security measures in their software [6].
9. We've learned that we can't trust the technology behind our proprietary consumer products.
10. We learned that centralized power has failed us.
11. • We learned about the attack on the creation process behind cryptographic algorithms, thereby making all of us less secure [7]. • We learned that the NSA and GCHQ have been directly targeting privacy software like Tor [8]. • We learned more about the extent of the privatization of anti-privacy software and solutions [9], and that it is scary and vast. • We learned that the GCHQ has resorted to phishing social networks like Linkedin to get the information they want [10].
12. • We learned that the NSA requested phone numbers from US Government officials, and then proceeded to wiretap them, specifically mentioning that they are monitoring conversations of at least 35 world leaders [11]. • We learned that the victims of this data analysis are worldwide, and that the data obtained is searchable, as easy a Google search [12].
13. We learned that we must encrypt everything.
14. • We learned from Mediastan that the media outside and inside the US are afraid of speaking against the government, and for this reason choose to self-censor their publications [13]. • We watched the Congress dance around Do-Not-Track, an “agreed standard” band-aid for ad companies which has continued to go nowhere [14]. • We watched the targets of programs like PRISM conveniently ignore these issues until they realized they were victims as well, and even then, only some started to raise concerns [15]. • We watched the Five Eyes work hard to soften the language of surveillance resolutions at the UN [16].
15. We learned that others won't always take the stand for us.
16. The biggest lesson from last year is that this all must change; surveillance has gotten way out of hand and has become all- encompassing.
17. What to do now
18. Joining the conversation • TA3M • Twitter • Newsletters • Whatever you want. • (Remember to use encryption!)
19. Important Projects! • OSS: arkOS, Tor, GPG, Truecrypt, LEAP Encryption Access Project, Tails, Open WhisperSystems, Secure Drop, many more • Organizations: OpenITP, EFF, ACLU, Freedom of the Press Foundation, EPIC, Demand Progress, WikiLeaks, many others • Etc: Stop Watching Us, The Day We Fight Back
20. There is so much more. Explore and you will find. A lot of people are involved.
21. Thanks! :) email: aj@ajvb.me twitter: @ajvbahnken pgp: bit.ly/1aG5z9S