We’re excited to announce our next virtual At Home With EFF event this Wednesday at noon (PT), with special guests Jeff Deutch of Syrian Archive and Mahsa Alimardani of Article 19. Join us for a conversation on content moderation, and the explosion of new, potentially privacy-invasive apps.
What’s At Home With EFF, you ask? In addition to the over 30 critiques, commentaries, and guides we’ve written to help users, governments, organizations, and companies maintain an open and secure approach to combating the pandemic, we’re also holding virtual events. This will be our second: during the first, on April 2, EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn laid out EFF’s major considerations in protecting our security and privacy during the pandemic. Afterwards, Activism Director Elliot Harmon spoke with Special Advisor and author Cory Doctorow about emergency medicine and emerging technologies like 3d-printed ventilator parts and open access science. After a short, entertaining trivia round, Staff Attorney Saira Hussain spoke with Cindy about the use of surveillance technologies to stop or slow the spread of coronavirus. You can watch the video below.
In addition to forcing all of us to think more carefully about our security and privacy, the coronavirus pandemic has also given us important opportunities. As Cindy said in her opening remarks:
For those of us in quarantine, shelter in place orders, or staying at home voluntarily to protect our communities, we are relying on the Internet and digital tools more than ever, sharing advice, art, hilarious and awesome memes, listening to our favorite musicians perform live in their living rooms, and using it to feel less alone. We are seeing now in realtime how technology can help us cope with the loss of in-person contact.
Many others are using digital tools to organize mutual aid for their neighborhoods and communities in this time of crisis and to support those that have fallen ill and their loved ones. That’s the opportunity we see here, and it is exciting!…The explosion of creativity online to keep us connected and sane during these tough times is a bright spot in a pretty dark time.
One of the opportunities that we’re taking advantage of: having more virtual conversations about digital rights while we’re on lockdown! We were only able to touch on some of the digital rights-related concerns this crisis has created during our first At Home With EFF event. We hope you’ll join us on Wednesday, April 22, at noon, for the next conversation, covering content moderation, and the explosion of new, potentially privacy-invasive apps: At Home With EFF: COVID-19, Free Speech, and Privacy. We’ll cover what we’ve learned as online platform moderation becomes more automated, with platforms like Facebook flagging and censoring more content than ever before. Following that discussion will be a conversation about privacy, apps, and digital rights, and how to protect yourself as you adopt new technologies like Zoom, and as companies like Google and Apple create new apps and products intended to fight the pandemic.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF champions user privacy, free expression, and innovation through impact litigation, policy analysis, grassroots activism, and technology development. We work to ensure that rights and freedoms are enhanced and protected as our use of technology grows. Visit https://www.eff.org