Modern field guide to security and privacy

Help Passcode get to SXSW

Check out the security and privacy panels that Passcode proposed for the upcoming South By Southwest Interactive festival – and vote!

The Passcode team is headed to the Lone Star State once again to talk security and privacy at the South By Southwest Interactive festival.

Earlier this year, Passcode made its debut at the festival in Austin. Speakers explored pressing questions of our Digital Age, including how data collected about consumers online could be used to discriminate against them in real life.

This year, Passcode lined up an all-star list of panelists for the March 2016 session – and we need your help. 

The public can vote on panels they want to see represented. If you are a security and privacy buff, or just want to see the Monitor at the festival, please share our panels across your social networks – and vote! 

While it's not the only factor determine which panels are selected, it's a major consideration. Voting is open through Sept. 4.

Here are the Passcode panels in the running for SXSW 2016:

Generation #Selfie: Do teens care about privacy?

The vast majority of teenagers today use smartphones, and a quarter say that they are online "almost constantly." Much of their lives live on the Web: selfies, emotional updates, trends they find interesting. Are they changing our definition of privacy?

Our panelists, including Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing, John Shahidi of selfie-sharing app Shots, and Mary Madden of the Data & Society Research Institute, will discuss whether they believe teens are oblivious to privacy concerns or outpacing adults with awareness of privacy hazards, such as blocking parents or teachers from viewing posts.

Can teens understand the potentially lasting real-life consequences of posting online? The answers will have a profound impact on companies and marketers targeting young consumers. Do companies have a responsibility to help them protect their privacy? VOTE for this panel. 

Smartwatch or spyware? Considering privacy and the Internet of Things

The spread of Internet-enabled gadgets means that more data is collected about our daily lives than ever before. Smartwatches track locations and health conditions while in-home devices learn our daily habits. Combined with big data, this information reveals an intimate portrait. And with the number of connected things expected to hit 25 billion by 2020, tech companies are poised to have incredible insight into consumer behavior.

Yet all of this innovation raises privacy concerns. Policymakers are already urging companies to safeguard this data, which is already being used in lawsuits. And if consumers feel their privacy is threatened, they may turn their backs on the Internet of Things. Panelists Julie Brill of the Federal Trade Commission, cybersecurity expert Michelle Dennedy, and Ruby Zefo of Intel Corporation will discuss privacy and the Internet of Things. VOTE for this panel. 

Cryptowars 2.0: Silicon Valley vs. Washington

To fight hackers and eavesdropping governments, companies such as Apple and Google moved to deploy especially fortified security protections. But US officials say this default encryption in consumer devices prevents them from catching terrorists and criminals – and want companies to weaken their encryption to give them easier access. Should they? 

Legendary University of Pennsylvania cryptographer Matt Blaze, RSA President Amit Yoran, and former NSA general counsel Stewart Baker will debate what they think is the right balance between protecting people's personal privacy and the country's security. The outcome of the national debate will have a profound impact on the future of the internet. If the US wins a back door, will other countries demand them, too? VOTE for this panel.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Help Passcode get to SXSW
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Passcode/2015/0814/Help-Passcode-get-to-SXSW
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe