Digital Privacy: Surveillance Self-Defense Workshop



Political movements come and go, but institutional authority is forever. Partisan interests have given our leaders political cover while they quietly built up the conditions for turnkey fascism. Now we are one click away from totalitarianism.



It's not too late.



We will show you how you can protect yourself by leveraging state-of-the-art encryption, decentralized technology, free/open source software, p2p, and other tools that empower you instead of control and exploit you. In a single sitting, you can make great strides toward securing your privacy in safe, free, legal, and practical ways.



We'll also talk about some of the reasons protecting digital privacy is so crucially important to our individual autonomy, psychological wellbeing, and the ability to have a free and democratic society. Another fundamentally important reason to fight for technological civil rights, even for someone who doesn't personally mind being tracked because they don't think they have anything to hide, is the protection of those who are marginalized, disenfranchised, disempowered or politically subversive.



All skill levels and backgrounds welcome. You don't need to bring any supplies or equipment to participate in the seminar or discussion. However, feel free to bring along your mobile devices and/or laptop if you'd like to get some hands-on experience trying out some privacy tools. We're also happy to provide some one-on-one help configuring your own hardware and software to better provide you with greater protection from being tracked or spied on, and fine-tuning for ease of use and your personal optimal degree of convenience vs. security and anonymity.

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Technology should support the intellectual freedom at the heart of a democratic society. In the digital age, we must consciously and conspicuously uphold these principles by fighting for transparency and freedom in culture, code, and law:



Free Expression: People should be able to speak their minds to whoever will listen.



Security: Technology should be trustworthy and answer to its users.



Privacy: Technology should allow private and anonymous speech, and allow users to set their own parameters about what to share with whom.



Creativity: Technology should promote progress by allowing people to build on the ideas, creations, and inventions of others.



Access to Knowledge: Curiosity should be rewarded, not stifled.



We know that freedom and justice don’t just materialize. They aren’t automatic or made inevitable by technology. If we want our technologies—which today are woven throughout our communities, our laws, our culture, and our very lives—to support freedom and justice, we have to work for it. We have to fight, together.



RSVP and join us on Tuesday evening! If you have any questions please reach out. Hope to see you there! :)