Alison Macrina

Founded in 2017, the Library Freedom Institute (LFI) is a partnership between Library Freedom Project and New York University to teach librarians the skills necessary to thrive as privacy advocates, from installing privacy-focused free software to influencing public policy. In this panel, Library Freedom Project director Alison Macrina and Bryan Neil Jones, from the Nashville Public Library, will discuss LFI’s goals, accomplishments, and challenges.

Other people: Bryan Jones

Tor is free software for privacy and freedom online; it protects you from tracking, surveillance, and censorship. Over the past year, with the help of a global team of contributors and one-on-one feedback from users around the world, the Tor Project has made major improvements to its software. A handful of Tor contributors will share what progress Tor teams have made, and what challenges they face. They’ll discuss new releases like Tor Browser for Android, usability improvements to Tor Browser, outreach initiatives, Tor network advancements, Tor’s new anti-censorship team, and what’s to come in the next year.

Other people: Stephanie Whited Isabela Bagueros Nathan Freitas Nick Mathewson

Librarians have long been defenders of democratic ideals like free speech and privacy, not only providing access to information and technology freely, but also by fighting back against threats to civil liberties like the USA PATRIOT Act and National Security Letters. In the post-Snowden era, libraries have taken this activism further and are teaching FLOSS privacy-enhancing technologies to their patrons in free computer classes, and installing these tools on library PCs. Nima Fatemi and Alison Macrina of Library Freedom Project will talk about how LFP kickstarted this movement of radical crypto-librarians, and how FLOSS tools like Tor Browser, Signal, OTR, GPG, and Tails are being deployed and taught in libraries to an overwhelmingly positive reception. Nima and Alison will also discuss LFP's newest project, bringing Tor exit relays into libraries, what happened when the Department of Homeland Security tried to shut down that project at a small New Hampshire library – and how the local and global community fought back and won.

Other people: Nima Fatemi

Major changes are underway in the Tor Project, the Tor Network, and the Tor community. We want to tell you details and introduce the growing Tor community to the larger world.

The State of the Onion covers technical, social, economic, political, and cultural issues pertaining to anonymity, the Tor Project, and the ecosystem surrounding our communities. Important topics include the following issues: - Our new mission statement and code of conduct - An introduction to our „Vegas Plan“ - Introducing a huge set of developers and users working on enabling your anonymity - An overview of the kinds of projects and groups involved with Tor - A summary and fact checking of important media coverage - A history lesson about the Tor network

Other people: Roger Jacob Mike Perry Shari Steele

Librarians all over the country are affirming their commitment to digital privacy rights by using and teaching free software tools in their libraries. This initiative -- the Library Freedom Project -- was started by IT librarian Alison Macrina and staff of the ACLU, who have been visiting privacy-loving librarians in different states to show them how freedom of speech and the right to privacy are compromised by digital surveillance, and what new privacy-protecting free software services libraries can offer to shield patrons from unwanted surveillance of their online activity. In this session, organizers from the Library Freedom Project will talk about how the project is unfolding, how developers can support the adoption of free software privacy tools at libraries, and what kinds of relationships need to form for these initiatives to be sustainable.

Other people: April Glaser