Mike Gerwitz

Words like "wizardry" and "incantation" have long been used to describe skillful computational feats. But neither computers nor their users are performing feats of magic; for systems to think, we must tell them how.

Today, users most often follow a carefully choreographed workflow that thinks for them, limited by a narrow set of premeditated possibilities. But there exist concepts that offer virtually no limits on freedom of expression or thought, blurring the distinction between "user" and "programmer."

This session demonstrates a range of practical possibilities when a machine acts as an extension of the user's imagination, for the technical and nontechnical alike.

Many communities have widely adopted codes of ethics governing the moral conduct of their members and professionals. Some of these codes may even be enshrined in law, and for good reason—certain conduct can have enormous consequences on the lives of others.

Software and technology pervade virtually every aspect of our lives. Yet, when compared to other fields, our community leaders and educators have produced an ethics void. Last year, I introduced numerous topics concerning privacy, security, and freedom that raise serious ethical concerns. Join me this year as we consider some of those examples and others in an attempt to derive a code of ethics that compares to the moral obligations of other fields, and to consider how leaders and educators should approach ethics within education and guidance.

Privacy, security, and personal freedom: each of these essential rights are being surreptitiously assaulted by governments, corporations, and ill-minded individuals that are spying and preying upon us with unprecedented frequency and breadth. This talk will survey the most pressing issues of today, including topics of government surveillance and espionage; advertisers and data analytics; IoT; policy and the crypto wars; the Web, "cloud", and centralization; vehicles; societal pressures and complacency; and more. Attendees will be presented with an overview of mitigations and dozens of resources.

Imagine a world where surveillance is the default and users must opt-in to privacy. Imagine that your every action is logged and analyzed to learn how you behave, what your interests are, and what you might do next. Imagine that, even on your fully free operating system, proprietary software is automatically downloaded and run not only without your consent, but often without your knowledge. In this world, even free software cannot be easily modified, shared, or replaced. In many cases, you might not even be in control of your own computing -- your actions and your data might be in control by a remote entity, and only they decide what you are and are not allowed to do.

This may sound dystopian, but this is the world you're living in right now. The Web today is an increasingly hostile, freedom-denying place that propagates to nearly every aspect of the average users' lives -- from their PCs to their phones, to their TVs and beyond. But before we can stand up and demand back our freedoms, we must understand what we're being robbed of, how it's being done, and what can (or can't) be done to stop it.