Once we could live lives of practical obscurity. No longer. Conveniences of modern life–from smartphones to smoke detectors–have become digital informants, giving governments and corporations detailed information about us.
The problem is often framed as one of privacy. But that doesn’t come close to capturing what’s threatened by the explosion of data and the zeal with which it’s collected, stored and analyzed. Free speech, security and equality are just a few of the values imperiled by mass surveillance.
But the situation isn’t hopeless. There’s nothing inevitable about technology overpowering liberty, and there are solutions–legal, regulatory and technological–to help us regain control over our data and our lives.
Join Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology project and legal advisor to Edward Snowden, for a conversation with Bruce Schneier, the country’s leading public interest technologist, about the world we’re creating and how we can fight back.
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