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A Dangerous Database of Personal Information (1:57): Dragnet surveillance gives intelligence agencies access to personal information in bulk, with tremendous potential for abuse.
Encryption Could End Dragnet Surveillance (2:21): When use of encryption becomes widespread, bulk surveillance could become too expensive to remain practical.
Technical Understanding Missing From Oversight (1:58): Government no longer has the technical expertise required to provide necessary oversight of the intelligence agencies.
Many of the big Internet companies whose services, applications, and operating systems we all use, occupy a unique position of power. To surveil us, governments need their help. However, these companies and their advertising-supported business models require that we trust them with our sensitive, private data. In the wake of the NSA disclosures, that trust is vanishing.
Can the companies find a way to restore user trust without destroying their advertising-supported services? What happens when governments go nuclear and demand the companies' encryption keys?
Speakers
Chris Soghoian is the Principal Technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. He is also a Visiting Fellow at Yale Law School's Information Society Project. He served as the first ever in-house technologist at the Federal Trade Commission's Division of Privacy and Identity Protection.
Stephen Hubbell, of the Open Society Fellowship program, moderates.
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