Kade Crockford

The 21st century techno-surveillance state is the oil that runs the deportation and mass incarceration machines. In Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions' America, it's more important than ever to fight for our core values: freedom, equality, justice, and democracy. That means using your technical skills in the service of liberation, but it also means engaging as an ordinary citizen in the messy work of lobbying and organizing. This talk will lay out some of the greatest challenges we face in 2017, and describe in detail some concrete ways we must unite to fight—not only against the Trump regime's dastardly plans, but also for the future we collectively need to build.

The government is tracking who you call and when. Snoops are reading your emails. Internet companies like Facebook, Google, and Yahoo are working with companies you've never heard of to compile deep, secret profiles of millions of us, sell the data, and make billions. We're being surveilled from all sides. This panel will address practical responses to the creeping techno-surveillance state. How are individuals and communities responding when so many of our private details are being hoovered up, in secret and for secret purposes? What are the best practices for navigating the spy-infested waters of the Internet? We've reached a point in which opting-out is no longer an option. Instead, we must arm ourselves with new digital habits, policy solutions and grassroots pressure to protect our digital rights. The NSA, the defense establishment, and Silicon Valley are incredibly powerful. How can we possibly fight back? What are the policy solutions that will roll back the laws that enable government spying and hold companies accountable when they collude in these programs or go too far with their own corporate surveillance practices? How can individuals work with others to pressure Congress, governmental agencies, and Internet companies to do the right thing and protect our privacy?