News digest | Open Society Information Program | Week ending July 24, 2020 ==================================================== The Information Program NEWS DIGEST, published on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month, aims to update colleagues in the Open Society Foundations and friends further afield about the news, opinions and events the Program team have been watching this fortnight. The views expressed in these stories do not necessarily reflect those of the Information Program or the OSF. Prepared by Wendy M. Grossman. Current and former grantees featured in this issue: Black Stripe Foundation, EIFL, Fundación Karisma, noyb. NEWS ===== Hong Kong Begins Imposing Censorship Under New Security Law ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Hong Kong government is creating web controls to comply with its new security law and has warned that non-compliance could include jail time for company employees, Paul Mozur reports at the New York Times. Many big technology companies have said they would stop complying with requests for user data from the Hong Kong authorities, and TikTok has announced it will withdraw its app entirely. Under the new law, the companies could be fined and have their equipment seized. At CNBC, Arjun Kharpal reports that a number of VPN companies have shut down their Hong Kong servers because of the new law. At Raw Story, Agence-France Presse reports that Hong Kong's government has ordered teachers and school librarians to review and remove books and learning materials that might breach the new law in any of the four categories of subversion, secession, terrorism, and colluding with foreign forces; libraries have already begun the process of removing titles for review. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/business/hong-kong-security-law-tech.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/17/vpn-firms-shut-down-hong-kong-servers-over-security-law-concerns.html https://www.rawstory.com/2020/07/hong-kong-government-orders-schools-to-remove-books-breaching-new-security-law/ European Court of Justice Strikes Down EU-US Privacy Shield Agreement ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The European Court of Justice has ruled in favor of Max Schrems and noyb and struck down the Privacy Shield transatlantic data sharing agreement on the grounds that its provisions do not sufficiently protect EU citizens from surveillance in the US, Stuart Lauchlan reports at Diginomica. The court also found that the US side is insufficiently policed; however, it said Standard Contractual Clauses can still be used as a legal basis provided that the receiving country "ensures an adequate level of data protection". In a statement, noyb says the ruling means that the US will have to change its surveillance laws if it wants American companies like Facebook to continue to play a major role in the European market and that the court has strengthened the data protection authorities' obligation to act. https://diginomica.com/privacy-shield-shattered-once-and-all-stand-more-trouble-between-eu-and-us-over-transatlantic-data https://noyb.eu/en/cjeu Open Technology Fund Shift Endangers Internet Tools ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Pack, the new chief executive of the US Agency for Global Media, has fired the top officials and bipartisan board at the agency's Open Technology Fund, Pranshu Verma and Edward Wong report at the New York Times. The fund has been important in developing tools supporting freedom and privacy, such as Signal and Tor, which are used by more than 2 billion people in 60 countries. Critics are concerned that a shift in the fund's focus could set back the fight for internet freedom by decades. Pack's move is being challenged in the courts. Verma and Wong note that the fund is under pressure to fund Ultrasurf, circumvention software favored by US political players who are members of Falun Gong. At Politico, Daniel Lippman reports that the fund is set to cancel its $2 million-a-year contract with Psiphon, a Canadian effort that makes the circumvention software currently used by audiences around the world to access publicly-funded US content without their government's awareness. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/04/us/politics/michael-pack-china-internet.html https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/17/encryption-software-dissidents-368424 Facebook Fails Independent Civil Rights Audit ---------------------------------------------------------------------- An independent audit of the state of civil rights on Facebook calls the company's handling of these issues is "too reactive and piecemeal", Rebecca Heilweil and Shirin Ghaffary report at Vox. Among the problems: allowing US president Donald Trump exceptional latitude; valuing free speech above all else; and the persistence of hate speech. In response, in a blog posting, COO Sheryl Sandberg said the company would put more of the audit's proposals into practice but won't make every change it calls for. At Mother Jones, Kevin Drum takes a contrarian view and highlights the audit's positive findings. https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/7/9/21318896/facebook-civil-rights-audit-hate-speech-failed-zuckerberg-white-nationalism-sheryl-sandberg https://about.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Civil-Rights-Audit-Final-Report.pdf https://about.fb.com/news/2020/07/civil-rights-audit-report/ https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2020/07/how-bad-is-facebooks-civil-rights-record/ Indian Authorities Use New Laws to Keep Protesters in Prison ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Indian authorities are using sedition and antiterrorism laws that criminalize everything from leading rallies to posting political messages on social media to avoid releasing protesters who were arrested earlier this year for demonstrating against India's controversial citizenship law, Sameer Yasir and Kai Schultz report at the New York Times. With the courts closed due to the country's coronavirus restrictions, lawyers can't file bail applications or meet their imprisoned clients privately. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/19/world/asia/india-activists-arrests-riots-coronavirus.html Google Docs Emerges as a Tool for Social Organizing ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Google Docs has emerged as a top tool for those organizing protests and education because it's more accessible, quicker, and more persistent and searchable than any social media site, Tanya Basu reports at MIT Technology Review. Social media is fine for publicizing movements, but is not suited to creating stable resources people can return to over time. https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/06/06/1002546/google-docs-social-media-resistance/ FEATURES AND ANALYSIS ==================== Copyright Licensing Rules Pose Difficulties for Move to Online Education ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this blog posting at EIFL, Teresa Hackett discusses the immediate challenge the COVID-19 pandemic is posing for the copyright and licensing framework as education moves online. Among her highlights: the different rules for offline and online teacher, the upcoming expiration of special access publishers granted at the beginning of the pandemic, ebook pricing models, inconsistencies in the scope of education exceptions, and the need for new approaches. https://www.eifl.net/blogs/covid-lessons-copyright-and-online-learning Privacy Laws Fail to Address Collective Harm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this Q&A, Marietje Schaake and Martin Tisne discuss his new paper, "The Data Delusion: Protection Individuals Isn't Enough When the Harm Is Collective", which argues that the EU's General Data Protection Regulation fails to meet many current regulatory needs and that lack of funding and capacity has hobbled enforcement. Crucially, current laws fail to address collective harm; other cultures such as the indigenous data rights movement, may be a source of innovation in this area. https://cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/news/data-delusion https://cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/publication/data-delusion Ethical and Practical Flaws Plague Immunity Passports ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this blog posting, the Ada Lovelace Institute recounts a recent livestream discussion of immunity passports that weighed up the practical potential against the ethical and human rights issues they bring. There are technical problems, in that scientists still don't know whether and for how long immunity to COVID-19 might last, while Françoise Baylis (Dalhousie University) noted the permanent damage that would come with creating a system for monitoring people; the proponents of these passports are already publicly envisioning their expansion as a broader health certificate. https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/the-societal-impacts-of-introducing-a-public-health-identity-system-legal-social-and-ethical-issues/ Smart Cities, Data, and Power ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this video clip, the Benchmark Initiative hosts a discussion of smart cities, data, and power featuring experienced urban managers and data users. How, moderator Maria Farrell asks, can we ensure that smart city implementations do not replicate or amplify existing inequalities in society? The need to share data to combat the coronavirus has made this question more urgent. https://vimeo.com/438848889 US Efforts Derail South African Copyright Reform ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this podcast, Michael Geist interviews South African documentary filmmaker Ben Cashdan, founder of the Black Stripe Foundation production company, who argues that US efforts to derail South African copyright reform is a racist policy. South Africa has spent a decade trying to update its copyright law in response to concerns from creators, educators, and the visually impaired, only to have the bill derailed after passing the parliament because of the pressure the US has placed on South African president Cyril Ramaphosa not to sign it. https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2020/07/lawbytes-podcast-episode-59/ Colombia's Pandemic Tools Fail Privacy Analysis ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this blog posting at Fundación Karisma, Stéphane Labarthe and Andrés Velasquez find that the technological tools adopted by the Colombian government to curb the coronavirus do not provide information about the purposes, fail to comply with basic data protection requirements, and recklessly deploy solutions that put the sensitive data relating to hundreds of thousands of users at risk. They conclude by offering recommendations for improvement. https://web.karisma.org.co/notificaciones-de-exposicion-a-traves-de-publicidad-wtf/ *** DIARY ============== *** In light of the coronavirus outbreak, please follow your organization's travel guidelines, and check links to events listed below regularly for participation restrictions and updates as to whether events will go ahead.*** If you would like your event listed in this mail, email info.digest@opensocietyfoundations.org. ONLINE EVENTS PrivacyCon ---------------------------------------- July 21, 2020 Washington, DC The US Federal Trade Commission's fifth annual PrivacyCon, which is free and open to the public, will focus in particular on the privacy of health data collected, stored, and transmitted by mobile apps. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/events-calendar/privacycon-2020 HACKERS ON PLANET EARTH ---------------------------------------- July 25-August 2, 2020 New York, NY, USA As part of reimagining the convention as an online event, HOPE will expand to nine days filled with the normal number of talks. Ticket-buyers will have exclusive access to presenters to ask questions, participate in workshops, and interact with other attendees, and will also receive an exclusive conference T-shirt and badge. HOPE expects that some who would have trouble traveling to the US will now be able to attend. The program is still being finalized. HOPE expects to return as a physical conference in 2021. https://www.2600.com RESPONSIBLE DATA SUMMIT ---------------------------------------- July 28-August 18, 2020 In a series of multiple tracks over multiple weeks, the Responsible Data Summit will run a virtual convening space that brings together top thought leaders in the field of AI - innovative technologists, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and advocates. The goal is to tackle the problem of building a responsible data economy. https://responsibledata.ai/ DEF CON SAFE MODE ---------------------------------------- August 7-9, 2020 DEFCON is one of the oldest and largest continuously running hacker conventions. https://forum.defcon.org/node/232005 Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security ---------------------------------------- August 9-11, 2020 The 16th Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS) will bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers and practitioners in human computer interaction, security, and privacy. The program will include technical papers, workshops and tutorials, lightning talks, and a poster session. https://www.usenix.org/conference/soups2020 Netroots Nation ---------------------------------------- August 13-15, 2020 Denver, Colorado, USA For more than a decade, Netroots Nation, which began as a convention for the most active members of the DailyKos community, has hosted the largest annual conference for progressives and other organizers and advocacy groups. They've drawn thousands of attendees from around the country and beyond, to develop their work around topics such as sharing data, developing technology talent, and managing digital campaigns. https://www.netrootsnation.org/ ONGOING Ada Lovelace Institute ---------------------------------------- London's Ada Lovelace Institute, founded in 2019 to ensure the ethical use of AI, is running a series of events on the issues surrounding the use of technologies in response to the pandemic. The July 8 event considered the impact of rolling out a public health identity system. https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/events/ Bace Security ---------------------------------------- Recent webinars sponsored by Bace Security include a "fireside" discussion of voting methods with Rebecca Mercuri, conducted the first security analysis of electronic voting in 2000, and security veteran Peter Neumann, and methods for privacy-protecting digital contact tracing with Arka Bala (ContextGrid) and serial entrepreneur and investor Aman Johan. https://www.bacesecurity.org/page/2686 Benchmark Initiative ---------------------------------------- The Benchmark Initiative is running regular events on topics such as the safe use of location data in human migration; data, power, and the pandemic; and managing social distancing in public spaces. All events are posted on Vimeo soon after they conclude (https://vimeo.com/user40391998/videos). https://benchmarkinitiative.com/event Civic Hall ---------------------------------------- New York's Civic Hall has moved a number of events online. Recent events include a session on designing stories to expose racial inequities and an interactive discussion of the new book by Sasha Costanza-Chock, Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need. https://civichall.org/event-calendar/ Data & Society ---------------------------------------- April-May Data & Society has moved its weekly Databites and Network Power Hours programs into online interactive formats for the rest of 2020. Databites: https://datasociety.net/library/design-justice/ Network Power Hours: https://datasociety.net/library/community-and-accessibility-online/ EFF ---------------------------------------- EFF and its local counterparts in the Electronic Frontier Alliance are running numerous events on subjects such as technology education, open source, voting security, and content moderation. https://www.eff.org/events/list?type=event Future in Review ---------------------------------------- Future in Review is running a series of online "FiReSide" events. Recent topics include China and the future technology struggle. https://www.futureinreview.com/fireside/ Legal Frontiers in Digital Media 2020 ---------------------------------------- May-June 2020, The Berkeley Center for Law and Technology's online alternative to its annual conference on emerging legal issues at the intersection of digital media, freedom of speech, and law includes live seminars (recorded and available for later playback) on content moderation and the coronavirus (April 15); a series on Chinese law, trade, and intellectual property (beginning April 22 and extending through May); and the right to repair (August 28). https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/bclt/ London Futurists ---------------------------------------- The London Futurists group, led by former Psion and Symbian architect David Wood, is presenting near-weekly speaker-led events focusing on potential radical transformations of humanity and society. Upcoming topics include genetic engineering (May 16). Event recordings are made available soon after meetings conclude. https://londonfuturists.com/forthcoming-meetings/ Open Data Institute ---------------------------------------- The ODI's Friday lunchtime talks have moved online. These one-hour talks cover topics such as data ethics, social equity, and trust. https://theodi.org/events/talks/ Open Rights Group ---------------------------------------- Ongoing The Open Rights Group and its local offshoots are running frequent online presentations and discussions of digital privacy, democracy, and data exploitation. Recent topics have included the launch of ORG's data and democracy report, a proposed law to ensure that contact tracing apps are surrounded with privacy-protecting safeguards, and the effect of the pandemic on democratic institutions. https://www.openrightsgroup.org/events/ Public Knowledge ---------------------------------------- Public Knowledge is running public web events on subjects such as algorithmic amplification of hate speech, the survival of local journalism, and how to protect privacy during a pandemic. https://www.publicknowledge.org/events/ RUSI ---------------------------------------- London's Royal United Services Institute is running frequent online events considering topics relating to international politics, terrorism, financial crime, policing, and warfare, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes it will bring. https://rusi.org/event/mapping-pandemic-policing-uk-during-covid-19 Singularity University ---------------------------------------- May, 2020 Singularity University has an ongoing series of events. July will see four discussions on the topic of the future of food, agriculture, food supply chains, and nutrition. Past topics have included the future of work and AI. https://su.org/events/ Transnational Institute ---------------------------------------- TNI's series of weekly COVID Capitalism webinars covers various aspects of transforming democracy, politics, and the economy for a fairer post-COVID world. June events include COVID-19 and incarceration (June 3); big tech, data, and human rights, a joint event with the Just Net Coalition (June 10); borders and migration (June 17); and the broken trade system (June 24). https://www.tni.org/en/webinars PHYSICAL WORLD EVENTS CANCELED 86th World Library and Information Congress ---------------------------------------- August 15-21, 2020 Dublin, Ireland WLIC is the annual conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). https://2020.ifla.org/ Thotcon ---------------------------------------- September 11-12, 2020 Chicago, Ilinois, USA The 11th Chicago-based Thotcon hacking conference is a non-commercial event intended to combine a top-quality information security conference with a casual and social experience. https://thotcon.org/ AI for Good ---------------------------------------- September 21-25, 2020 Geneva, Switzerland The AI for Good Global Summit is the leading United Nations platform for global and inclusive dialogue on AI. The Summit is hosted each year in Geneva by the International Telecommunications Union, in partnership with sibling UN agencies, the XPRIZE Foundation, and ACM. https://aiforgood.itu.int/ CANCELED EIFL General Assembly ---------------------------------------- September 24-26, 2020 Vilnius, Lithuania The GA is EIFL's major annual knowledge-sharing and networking event for library professionals in developing and transition economy countries. https://www.eifl.net/events/eifl-general-assembly POSTPONED We Robot 2020 ---------------------------------------- Awaiting update Ottawa, Ontario, Canada We Robot is an interdisciplinary conference on the legal and policy questions relating to robots. The increasing sophistication of robots and their widespread deployment everywhere - from the home, to hospitals, to public spaces, and even to the battlefield - disrupts existing legal regimes and requires new thinking on policy issues. The conference fosters conversations between the people designing, building, and deploying robots, and those who design or influence the legal and social structures in which robots will operate. https://techlaw.uottawa.ca/werobot Big Tech and Antitrust Conference ---------------------------------------- October 3, 2020 New Haven, Connecticut, USA Yale Law School's Information Society Project and Thurman Arnold Project co-host a half-day conference to explore the role of antitrust and competition law in shaping the future of the digital economy. The conference will discuss the kinds of harms antitrust law needs to address in the digital age; the relationship between antitrust law and broader concerns such as privacy, innovation, and inequality; and policy recommendations, including changes in the interpretation of antitrust laws and doctrines, enforcement practices, and the institutional organization of agencies. We encourage submissions from all disciplines that contribute to related legal, economic, regulatory, or policy discussions. https://law.yale.edu/yls-today/yale-law-school-events/big-tech-antitrust-conference Future in Review ---------------------------------------- October 6-9, 2020 La Jolla, CA, USA Future in Review 2019 is a global conference on the intersection of technology and the economy, offering new partnerships, projects, and plans, and the opportunity to analyze and create the future of technology, economics, pure science, the environment, genomics, education, and more. https://www.futureinreview.com Privacy Law Forum ---------------------------------------- October 9, 2020 Palo Alto, CA The program will be very similar to the one originally planned, covering all the hot issues in privacy and cybersecurity law. Registration remains open. https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/bclt/bcltevents/2020-privacy-law-forum/ Web Summit ---------------------------------------- November 2-5, 2020 Lisbon, Portugal At a time of great uncertainty for many industries and indeed, the world itself, Web Summit gathers the founders and CEOs of technology companies, fast-growing startups, policymakers and heads of state to ask a simple question: Where to next? https://websummit.com/ Freedom not Fear ---------------------------------------- November 6-9, 2020 Brussels, Belgium Freedom not Fear is supported by a broad alliance including political parties, professional associations, trade unions, and freedom activists and hopes to join forces with NGOs from all over the world in order to build a strong alliance to oppose the threat increasing surveillance poses to freedom of speech in a digitized world and privacy in the knowledge society. https://www.freedomnotfear.org/ International Open Data Conference ---------------------------------------- November 18-20, 2020 Nairobi, Kenya The sixth edition of IODC will be hosted by the government of Kenya with support from the OD4D Network, IDRC, and the World Bank. The conference program will be co-created with the community via an open call for proposals to ensure a diverse agenda of interactive sessions, workshops, and ancillary events. A special focus will be placed on building bridges with the broader data community, exploring how to bring the power of the newest technologies to some of the world's oldest problems, and creating new models for collaboration in order to drive social and economic value from open data in Africa and around the world. https://opendatacon.org/ WEIS ---------------------------------------- December 14-15, 2020 Brussels, Belgium The annual workshop on the economics of information security is a cross-disciplinary event to develop more effective approaches to information security. https://weis2020.econinfosec.org/ Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection ---------------------------------------- January 27-29, 2021 Brussels, Belgium As a world-leading multidisciplinary conference CPDP offers the cutting edge in legal, regulatory, academic and technological development in privacy and data protection. Within an atmosphere of independence and mutual respect, CPDP 2021, "Enforcing Rights in a Changing World", will gather academics, lawyers, practitioners, policy-makers, industry, and civil society from all over the world to offer an arena to exchange ideas and discuss the latest emerging issues and trends. https://www.cpdpconferences.org/ MozFest 2021 ---------------------------------------- March 2021 Amsterdam, The Netherlands MozFest programs and events are co-created by a group of dynamic, vibrant and varied community collaborators, all working towards one goal: the opportunity for everyone to live a healthy online life. https://www.mozillafestival.org/en/ Wikimania 2021 ---------------------------------------- TBD Bangkok, Thailand Wikimania 2020, now Wikimania 2021, will be the 16th Wikimania conference, an annual event for the international Wikimedia community. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2020 Privacy Law Scholars 2021 ---------------------------------------- June 3-4, 2021 TBC Washington, DC, USA Privacy Law Scholars is a paper workshop intended to improve the quality of legal scholarship in the area of privacy. Participants submit works-in-progress for workshop discussions led by commenters on the papers. https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/bclt/bcltevents/2020-privacy-law-scholars-conference/ Digitising Early Childhood ---------------------------------------- June 2021 Milan, Italy Contemporary children and their parents are inventing what it is to have a digital childhood, and in doing so are introducing families, schools and policy makers to new ways of thinking, doing and being. This conference discusses and expands research trajectories through these uncertainties and aims to build bridges across the different disciplines and strands of research in this area. It will forge a new way forward and consolidate the base of what we already know, revealing what we have yet to investigate and address, and what important insights are emerging that must be taken seriously. http://www.digitisingearlychildhood.com/2020-conference.html CPDP LatAm 2021 ---------------------------------------- Postponed from June 23-25, 2020 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil The first Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection Latin America will be held in conjunction with the first Latin American Privacy Law Scholars conference and MyData's first Latin American meeting. The theme will be "Data Protection in Latin America: Democracy, Innovation, and Regulation". The organizers hope it will be a unique opportunity to bring together varied and complementary perspectives on data protection and its impact on democracy, innovation, and regulation in Latin America. https://cpdp.lat/en/ DEF CON 29 ---------------------------------------- August 5-8, 2021 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Def Con is one of the oldest and best-attended hacker conferences. Each year it attracts thousands of professional and amateur security researchers. https://www.defcon.org Singularity University Global Summit 2021 ---------------------------------------- August 23-25, 2021 Los Angeles, California, USA Global Summit 2021 Singularity University's premier annual gathering brings together 2,000 changemakers for talks on AI, augmented/virtual relity, blockchain, the future of work, impact, investing, robotics and more. https://su.org/summits/su-global-summit/ World Library and Information Congress 2021 ---------------------------------------- August 2021 Rotterdam, Netherlands WLIC is the annual conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). https://2020.ifla.org/ *** Hear more from the Information Program! ================================ If you have been forwarded this email by a friend and wish to subscribe to this fortnightly digest, please visit: https://opensocietyfoundations.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=52d98944f5466486ab8567329&id=1c0675de1d. 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July 2020 Archives
News digest | Open Society Information Program | Week ending July 10, 2020 ==================================================== The Information Program NEWS DIGEST, published on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month, aims to update colleagues in the Open Society Foundations and friends further afield about the news, opinions and events the Program team have been watching this fortnight. The views expressed in these stories do not necessarily reflect those of the Information Program or the Open Society Foundations. Prepared by Wendy M. Grossman. Current and former grantees featured in this issue: Access Now, APC, EFF, Internetlab, PIJIP, Privacy International. NEWS ===== China Imposes New National Security Law on Hong Kong ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Chinese government has imposed a new national security law on Hong Kong that enshrines sweeping powers that critics say will suppress the city's traditional freedoms, Lily Kuo and Verna Yu report at the Guardian. The law, which criminalizes "endangering national security", applies to Hong Kong permanent residents, non-residents, and people outside Hong Kong who violate the law; it awards Hong Kong police powers to intercept communications, conduct covert surveillance, and request information from service providers and overseas political organizations and authorities. At the Guardian, Helen Davidson and Verna Yu report that a day after the law came into force Hong Kong police arrested more than 180 protesters, at least 30 of them for offenses under the new law such as illegal assembly, and pepper-sprayed dozens of observing journalists. The Hong Kong Free Press provides a full English translation of the law. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/30/controversial-hong-kong-national-security-law-comes-into-effect https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/01/hong-kong-activists-call-for-protests-over-security-law-as-city-marks-handover-anniversary https://hongkongfp.com/2020/07/01/in-full-english-translation-of-the-hong-kong-national-security-law/ South African President Sends Copyright Bill Back to Parliament ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Claiming constitutional concerns, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa returned to Parliament for further consideration for the Copyright Amendment Bill and the Performers' Protection Amendment Bill, Laura Kayali reports at Politico. The bills had been on his desk awaiting his signature for 15 months. The US has openly threatened South Africa with withdrawal of investment if the bills become law; former MEP Julia Reda has obtained dozens of internal European Commission documents that show that behind the scenes the EU has also opposed the legislation. At InfoJustice, Mike Palmedo publishes analyses of Ramaphosa's constitutional arguments from experts such as Sean Flynn (PIJIP), who argue that none of the dozen countries that have enacted similar exceptions have been challenged under international law and question Ramaphosa's timing if his concern really is constitutional issues. https://www.politico.eu/article/how-washington-and-brussels-pressured-south-africa-to-delay-copyright-reform/amp/ http://infojustice.org/archives/42426 Social Media Platforms Suspend Trump Supporters' Accounts ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Citing "hateful content", Twitch has temporarily suspended Donald Trump's campaign account, Reddit deactivated the biggest pro-Trump subreddit, "The_Donald", and YouTube banned several prominent white supremacist accounts, Gilad Edelman reports at Wired. Edelman suggests the timing may be as much due to Trump's drop in the polls as to public protests. At the Guardian, Joan E. Greve adds that despite Trump's May Executive Order seeking to amend the theCommunications Decency Act's S230 liability shield, Snapchat says it will no longer promote Trump's posts on its Discover channel, and Facebook has taken down Trump campaign ads that included a Nazi-associated symbol. The Trump campaign is threfore experimenting with alternative platforms such as Twitter clone Parler that have "no-censorship" policies, but is finding they don't have the same reach. At the New York Times, Kevin Roose suggests the moves represent a step change that will make the unregulated web "more accountable, more self-aware, and less willfully naïve". At The New Yorker, Anna Wiener calls the debate over modifying S230 "outdated", surveys the platforms' efforts to self-regulate and experiment with different moderation strategies and models of platform governance, and considers alternative approaches such as algorithmic transparency or registration as public-benefit corporations. https://www.wired.com/story/twitch-reddit-hammer-team-trump-social-media/ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/05/trump-twitter-social-media-reddit-parler https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/02/technology/goodbye-to-the-wild-wild-web.html https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-silicon-valley/trump-twitter-facebook-and-the-future-of-online-speech India Bans 59 Chinese Apps ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Indian Ministry of Information Technology has banned 59 apps of Chinese origin including TikTok, WeChat, Shareit, and Baidu Map, Rahul Shrivastava reports at India Today. The government, which cited Section 69A of the Information Technology Act read in conjunction with provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009, said the apps were engaged in activities that were prejudicial to the sovereignty, integrity, and defense of India. At Wired, Varsha Bansal reports that the sudden shutdown has broken TikTok's Indian influencer base, leaving 1.2 million creators stranded with no audience and no income. https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/centre-announces-ban-chinese-apps-privacy-issues-1695265-2020-06-29 https://www.wired.co.uk/article/tiktok-india-ban Brazilian Senate Passes "Fake News" Law ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Brazilian Senate has passed the fourth version of a bill that creates a self-regulatory regime for platforms with more than 2 million users to identify and limit the production and spread of online disinformation and defamatory content, Angelica Mari reports at ZDNet. The bill would require companies to ban accounts set up to spread false content, require bots to be clearly marked, and disclose details such as the amount spent and the source of material related to political campaigning. Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has said he may veto the bill if it passes Congress. At Poynter, Harrison Mantas summarizes criticism and quotes Internetlab director Francisco Brito Cruz, who says the bill was hastily drafted without expert legal and technical input and that the bill's requirement that social media account holders provide an identity document and cellphone number will deprive many low-income Brazilians of access. At EFF, Veridiana Alimonti gives background on the bill and finds that the latest draft will strike down settled privacy and freedom of expression safeguards. https://www.zdnet.com/article/brazilian-senate-passes-fake-news-bill/ https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2020/brazilian-fact-checkers-warn-a-proposed-fake-news-bill-will-do-more-harm-than-good/0 https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/06/current-brazils-fake-news-bill-would-dismantle-crucial-rights-online-and-fast ECOWAS Court Rules Togo Internet Shutdown Was Illegal ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this blog posting, Access Now celebrates the ruling by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Community Court of Justice that the Togolese government's action in ordering an internet shutdown during the country's 2017 protests was illegal. Access Now was one of eight organizations - the others included APC, Article 19, the Internet Freedom Foundation, and CIPESA - that filed amici curiae briefs in the lawsuit, which was brought by Amnesty International Togo and Media Defence on behalf of seven Togolese NGOs and a journalist. https://www.accessnow.org/internet-shutdowns-in-togo-illegal/ https://www.mediadefence.org/sites/default/files/files/Togo%20Press%20Release.pdf FEATURES AND ANALYSIS ==================== Facial Recognition Supercharges Police Abuse ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this article at The Atlantic, Malkia Devich-Cyril discusses the role facial recognition plays in the brutal policing that has sparked the Black Lives Matter movement, for example helping Homeland Security and other police forces identify and arrest BLM protesters. Devich-Cyril says she has warned for a decade that facial recognition and biometrics would be used to "supercharge police abuses of power and worsen racial discrimination", and argues that facial recognition, like earlier forms of scientific racism, creates new threats while reproducing and supersizing racial inequality. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/07/defund-facial-recognition/613771/ The Conversation Shows Potential for New Journalism Business Models ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this article at the Columbia Journalism Review, Anya Schiffrin examines the rising success of The Conversation, a non-profit project that pairs experienced journalists and editors with academics to produce freely accessible scholarly articles for a general audience. Since the pandemic began, submissions have tripled in some areas, and global visits have more than doubled. The Conversation's business model varies by region; in some areas it's funded by foundations and in others by universities, the state, and research institutions. https://www.cjr.org/the_profile/the-conversation-covid-19.php Pandemic-related Surveillance Could Become Permanent ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this article at the Guardian, Oliver Holmes, Justin McCurry, and Michael Safi cite digital experts who warn that the extensive surveillance measures introduced around the world to curb the pandemic are widening and becoming entrenched despite having been enacted as "temporary". Digital tracking is in use in 35 countries and half of the 28 or more countries in which contact tracing apps have been deployed use GPS location data and do not disclose how long users' data is stored. At Privacy International, staff provide analyses of trends from its coronavirus global response tracker. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/18/coronavirus-mass-surveillance-could-be-here-to-stay-tracking https://privacyinternational.org/examples/tracking-global-response-covid-19 Facebook Faces Advertising Boycott ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this article at Politico, Nancy Scola tells the inside story of the creation of the #StopHateForProfit campaign, which sees numerous advertisers boycotting Facebook because of the company's "repeated failure to meaningfully address the vast proliferation of hate on its platforms". Leading the campaign, which has its roots in post-2016 election outrage, is a coalition of civil rights groups including the Anti-Defamation League, Free Press, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In a statement, the campaign reports that at a meeting with its leaders Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered "the same old defense" but no new concrete plans, and provides recommendations. At Newsweek, Jason Murdock reports that Verizon has joined the boycott and collects comments from leading advertisers including Ben & Jerry's and Patagonia; he also notes that Facebook staff members are protesting the company's decision not to remove a post by US president Donald Trump during the Black Lives Matter protests that suggested the authorities could start shooting looters. At the Guardian, Carole Cadwalladr compares Facebook to North Korea because neither the US Congress nor the EU has been able to hold it to account; if the advertiser boycott also fails, she believes it will be a pivotal moment in its existential threat to democracy. At the Columbia Journalism Review, Jacob Silverman surveys journalists on the complexity and frustration of reporting on Facebook, and finds that the company operates with "the secrecy of an intelligence agency and the authority of a state government". https://www.newsweek.com/facebook-stop-hate-profit-advertising-boycott-full-list-companies-businesses-1513573 https://naacp.org/latest/statement-stop-hate-profit-meeting-facebook/ https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/07/03/activists-advertising-boycott-facebook-348528 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jul/05/facebook-is-out-of-control-if-it-were-a-country-it-would-be-north-korea https://www.cjr.org/special_report/reporting-on-facebook.php Finding What's "Good" in Technosociety ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this video clip, the Ada Lovelace Institute presents its panel on "What does 'good' look like in a technosociety?" from COGX 2020, featuring Thomas Hughes, former director of Article 19 and new director of Oversight Board Administration for Facebook, and Safiya Umoja Noble, author of Algorithms of Oppression. Framing the discussion as one of ethics, Noble says, depoliticizes the way platforms are implicated in the real harms of their use as a global amplifier of hate and avoids deeper structural analysis. https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/what-does-good-look-like-in-a-technosociety/ How to Oppose the Link Tax ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this podcast episode, Michael Geist interviews former MEP Julia Reda about her experiences working on copyright reform in the EU and the battle over the "link tax" in order to help plan the appropriate response to similar proposals that Canada is expected to put into legislative proposals in the autumn. In countries like France and Germany, which have experimented with such a law, the result was that large publishers gave Google a free license and wasted precious resources on court cases, while smaller publishers were locked out. https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2020/06/lawbytes-podcast-episode-57/ *** DIARY ============== *** In light of the coronavirus outbreak, please follow your organization's travel guidelines, and check links to events listed below regularly for participation restrictions and updates as to whether events will go ahead.*** If you would like your event listed in this mail, email info.digest@opensocietyfoundations.org. ONLINE EVENTS PrivacyCon ---------------------------------------- July 21, 2020 Washington, DC The US Federal Trade Commission's fifth annual PrivacyCon, which is free and open to the public, will focus in particular on the privacy of health data collected, stored, and transmitted by mobile apps. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/events-calendar/privacycon-2020 HACKERS ON PLANET EARTH ---------------------------------------- July 25-August 2, 2020 New York, NY, USA As part of reimagining the convention as an online event, HOPE will expand to nine days filled with the normal number of talks. Ticket-buyers will have exclusive access to presenters to ask questions, participate in workshops, and interact with other attendees, and will also receive an exclusive conference T-shirt and badge. HOPE expects that some who would have trouble traveling to the US will now be able to attend. The program is still being finalized. HOPE expects to return as a physical conference in 2021. https://www.2600.com RESPONSIBLE DATA SUMMIT ---------------------------------------- July 28-August 18, 2020 In a series of multiple tracks over multiple weeks, the Responsible Data Summit will run a virtual convening space that brings together top thought leaders in the field of AI - innovative technologists, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and advocates. The goal is to tackle the problem of building a responsible data economy. https://responsibledata.ai/ DEF CON SAFE MODE ---------------------------------------- August 7-9, 2020 DEFCON is one of the oldest and largest continuously running hacker conventions. https://forum.defcon.org/node/232005 Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security ---------------------------------------- August 9-11, 2020 The 16th Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS) will bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers and practitioners in human computer interaction, security, and privacy. The program will include technical papers, workshops and tutorials, lightning talks, and a poster session. https://www.usenix.org/conference/soups2020 Netroots Nation ---------------------------------------- August 13-15, 2020 Denver, Colorado, USA For more than a decade, Netroots Nation, which began as a convention for the most active members of the DailyKos community, has hosted the largest annual conference for progressives and other organizers and advocacy groups. They've drawn thousands of attendees from around the country and beyond, to develop their work around topics such as sharing data, developing technology talent, and managing digital campaigns. https://www.netrootsnation.org/ ONGOING Ada Lovelace Institute ---------------------------------------- London's Ada Lovelace Institute, founded in 2019 to ensure the ethical use of AI, is running a series of events on the issues surrounding the use of technologies in response to the pandemic. The July 8 event considers the impact of rolling out a public health identity system. https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/events/ Bace Security ---------------------------------------- Recent webinars sponsored by Bace Security include a "fireside" discussion of voting methods with Rebecca Mercuri, conducted the first security analysis of electronic voting in 2000, and security veteran Peter Neumann, and methods for privacy-protecting digital contact tracing with Arka Bala (ContextGrid) and serial entrepreneur and investor Aman Johan. https://www.bacesecurity.org/page/2686 Benchmark Initiative ---------------------------------------- The Benchmark Initiative is running regular events on topics such as the safe use of location data in human migration; data, power, and the pandemic; and managing social distancing in public spaces. https://benchmarkinitiative.com/event Civic Hall ---------------------------------------- New York's Civic Hall has moved a number of events online. Coming up toward the end of May are events on designing stories to expose racial inequities and an interactive discussion of the new book by Sasha Costanza-Chock, Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need. https://civichall.org/event-calendar/ Data & Society ---------------------------------------- April-May Data & Society has moved its weekly Databites and Network Power Hours programs into online interactive formats for the rest of 2020. Databites: https://datasociety.net/library/design-justice/ Network Power Hours: https://datasociety.net/library/community-and-accessibility-online/ EFF ---------------------------------------- EFF and its local counterparts in the Electronic Frontier Alliance are running numerous events on subjects such as technology education, open source, voting security, and content moderation. https://www.eff.org/events/list?type=event Future in Review ---------------------------------------- Future in Review is running a series of online "FiReSide" events. Recent topics include China and the future technology struggle. https://www.futureinreview.com/fireside/ Legal Frontiers in Digital Media 2020 ---------------------------------------- May-June 2020 The Berkeley Center for Law and Technology's online alternative to its annual conference on emerging legal issues at the intersection of digital media, freedom of speech, and law includes live seminars (recorded and available for later playback) on content moderation and the coronavirus (April 15); a series on Chinese law, trade, and intellectual property (beginning April 22 and extending through May); and the right to repair (August 28). https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/bclt/ London Futurists ---------------------------------------- The London Futurists group, led by former Psion and Symbian architect David Wood, is presenting near-weekly speaker-led events focusing on potential radical transformations of humanity and society. Upcoming topics include genetic engineering (May 16). Event recordings are made available soon after meetings conclude. https://londonfuturists.com/forthcoming-meetings/ Open Data Institute ---------------------------------------- The ODI's Friday lunchtime talks have moved online. These one-hour talks cover topics such as data ethics, social equity, and trust. https://theodi.org/events/talks/ Open Rights Group ---------------------------------------- Ongoing The Open Rights Group and its local offshoots are running frequent online presentations and discussions of digital privacy, democracy, and data exploitation. Recent topics have included the launch of ORG's data and democracy report, a proposed law to ensure that contact tracing apps are surrounded with privacy-protecting safeguards, and the effect of the pandemic on democratic institutions. https://www.openrightsgroup.org/events/ Public Knowledge ---------------------------------------- Public Knowledge is running public web events on subjects such as algorithmic amplification of hate speech, the survival of local journalism, and how to protect privacy during a pandemic. https://www.publicknowledge.org/events/ RUSI ---------------------------------------- London's Royal United Services Institute is running frequent online events considering topics relating to international politics, terrorism, financial crime, policing, and warfare, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes it will bring. https://rusi.org/event/mapping-pandemic-policing-uk-during-covid-19 Singularity University ---------------------------------------- May, 2020 Singularity University has an ongoing series of events. July will see four discussions on the topic of the future of food, agriculture, food supply chains, and nutrition. Past topics have included the future of work and AI. https://su.org/events/ Transnational Institute ---------------------------------------- TNI's series of weekly COVID Capitalism webinars covers various aspects of transforming democracy, politics, and the economy for a fairer post-COVID world. June events include COVID-19 and incarceration (June 3); big tech, data, and human rights, a joint event with the Just Net Coalition (June 10); borders and migration (June 17); and the broken trade system (June 24). https://www.tni.org/en/webinars PHYSICAL WORLD EVENTS CANCELED 86th World Library and Information Congress ---------------------------------------- August 15-21, 2020 Dublin, Ireland WLIC is the annual conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). https://2020.ifla.org/ Thotcon ---------------------------------------- September 11-12, 2020 Chicago, Ilinois, USA The 11th Chicago-based Thotcon hacking conference is a non-commercial event intended to combine a top-quality information security conference with a casual and social experience. https://thotcon.org/ AI for Good ---------------------------------------- September 21-25, 2020 Geneva, Switzerland The AI for Good Global Summit is the leading United Nations platform for global and inclusive dialogue on AI. The Summit is hosted each year in Geneva by the International Telecommunications Union, in partnership with sibling UN agencies, the XPRIZE Foundation, and ACM. https://aiforgood.itu.int/ CANCELED EIFL General Assembly ---------------------------------------- September 24-26, 2020 Vilnius, Lithuania The GA is EIFL's major annual knowledge-sharing and networking event for library professionals in developing and transition economy countries. https://www.eifl.net/events/eifl-general-assembly POSTPONED We Robot 2020 ---------------------------------------- Awaiting update Ottawa, Ontario, Canada We Robot is an interdisciplinary conference on the legal and policy questions relating to robots. The increasing sophistication of robots and their widespread deployment everywhere - from the home, to hospitals, to public spaces, and even to the battlefield - disrupts existing legal regimes and requires new thinking on policy issues. The conference fosters conversations between the people designing, building, and deploying robots, and those who design or influence the legal and social structures in which robots will operate. https://techlaw.uottawa.ca/werobot Big Tech and Antitrust Conference ---------------------------------------- October 3, 2020 New Haven, Connecticut, USA Yale Law School's Information Society Project and Thurman Arnold Project co-host a half-day conference to explore the role of antitrust and competition law in shaping the future of the digital economy. The conference will discuss the kinds of harms antitrust law needs to address in the digital age; the relationship between antitrust law and broader concerns such as privacy, innovation, and inequality; and policy recommendations, including changes in the interpretation of antitrust laws and doctrines, enforcement practices, and the institutional organization of agencies. We encourage submissions from all disciplines that contribute to related legal, economic, regulatory, or policy discussions. https://law.yale.edu/yls-today/yale-law-school-events/big-tech-antitrust-conference Future in Review ---------------------------------------- October 6-9, 2020 La Jolla, CA, USA Future in Review 2019 is a global conference on the intersection of technology and the economy, offering new partnerships, projects, and plans, and the opportunity to analyze and create the future of technology, economics, pure science, the environment, genomics, education, and more. https://www.futureinreview.com Privacy Law Forum ---------------------------------------- October 9, 2020 Palo Alto, CA The program will be very similar to the one originally planned, covering all the hot issues in privacy and cybersecurity law. Registration remains open. https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/bclt/bcltevents/2020-privacy-law-forum/ Web Summit ---------------------------------------- November 2-5, 2020 Lisbon, Portugal At a time of great uncertainty for many industries and indeed, the world itself, Web Summit gathers the founders and CEOs of technology companies, fast-growing startups, policymakers and heads of state to ask a simple question: Where to next? https://websummit.com/ Freedom not Fear ---------------------------------------- November 6-9, 2020 Brussels, Belgium Freedom not Fear is supported by a broad alliance including political parties, professional associations, trade unions, and freedom activists and hopes to join forces with NGOs from all over the world in order to build a strong alliance to oppose the threat increasing surveillance poses to freedom of speech in a digitized world and privacy in the knowledge society. https://www.freedomnotfear.org/ International Open Data Conference ---------------------------------------- November 18-20, 2020 Nairobi, Kenya The sixth edition of IODC will be hosted by the government of Kenya with support from the OD4D Network, IDRC, and the World Bank. The conference program will be co-created with the community via an open call for proposals to ensure a diverse agenda of interactive sessions, workshops, and ancillary events. A special focus will be placed on building bridges with the broader data community, exploring how to bring the power of the newest technologies to some of the world's oldest problems, and creating new models for collaboration in order to drive social and economic value from open data in Africa and around the world. https://opendatacon.org/ WEIS ---------------------------------------- December 14-15, 2020 Brussels, Belgium The annual workshop on the economics of information security is a cross-disciplinary event to develop more effective approaches to information security. https://weis2020.econinfosec.org/ Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection ---------------------------------------- January 27-29, 2021 Brussels, Belgium As a world-leading multidisciplinary conference CPDP offers the cutting edge in legal, regulatory, academic and technological development in privacy and data protection. Within an atmosphere of independence and mutual respect, CPDP 2021, "Enforcing Rights in a Changing World", will gather academics, lawyers, practitioners, policy-makers, industry, and civil society from all over the world to offer an arena to exchange ideas and discuss the latest emerging issues and trends. https://www.cpdpconferences.org/ MozFest 2021 ---------------------------------------- March 2021 Amsterdam, The Netherlands MozFest programs and events are co-created by a group of dynamic, vibrant and varied community collaborators, all working towards one goal: the opportunity for everyone to live a healthy online life. https://www.mozillafestival.org/en/ Wikimania 2021 ---------------------------------------- TBD Bangkok, Thailand Wikimania 2020, now Wikimania 2021, will be the 16th Wikimania conference, an annual event for the international Wikimedia community. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2020 Privacy Law Scholars 2021 ---------------------------------------- June 3-4, 2021 TBC Washington, DC, USA Privacy Law Scholars is a paper workshop intended to improve the quality of legal scholarship in the area of privacy. Participants submit works-in-progress for workshop discussions led by commenters on the papers. https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/bclt/bcltevents/2020-privacy-law-scholars-conference/ Digitising Early Childhood ---------------------------------------- June 2021 Milan, Italy Contemporary children and their parents are inventing what it is to have a digital childhood, and in doing so are introducing families, schools and policy makers to new ways of thinking, doing and being. This conference discusses and expands research trajectories through these uncertainties and aims to build bridges across the different disciplines and strands of research in this area. It will forge a new way forward and consolidate the base of what we already know, revealing what we have yet to investigate and address, and what important insights are emerging that must be taken seriously. http://www.digitisingearlychildhood.com/2020-conference.html CPDP LatAm 2021 ---------------------------------------- Postponed from June 23-25, 2020 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil The first Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection Latin America will be held in conjunction with the first Latin American Privacy Law Scholars conference and MyData's first Latin American meeting. The theme will be "Data Protection in Latin America: Democracy, Innovation, and Regulation". The organizers hope it will be a unique opportunity to bring together varied and complementary perspectives on data protection and its impact on democracy, innovation, and regulation in Latin America. https://cpdp.lat/en/ DEF CON 29 ---------------------------------------- August 5-8, 2021 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Def Con is one of the oldest and best-attended hacker conferences. Each year it attracts thousands of professional and amateur security researchers. https://www.defcon.org Singularity University Global Summit 2021 ---------------------------------------- August 23-25, 2021 Los Angeles, California, USA Global Summit 2021 Singularity University's premier annual gathering brings together 2,000 changemakers for talks on AI, augmented/virtual relity, blockchain, the future of work, impact, investing, robotics and more. https://su.org/summits/su-global-summit/ World Library and Information Congress 2021 ---------------------------------------- August 2021 Rotterdam, Netherlands WLIC is the annual conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). https://2020.ifla.org/ *** Hear more from the Information Program! ================================ If you have been forwarded this email by a friend and wish to subscribe to this fortnightly digest, please visit: https://opensocietyfoundations.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=52d98944f5466486ab8567329&id=1c0675de1d. You can also read more about our work on the Open Society Foundations website: https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/who-we-are/programs/information-program Hear less from the Information Program! ================================ You are receiving this email because you signed up for updates from the Open Society Information Program. If you wish to unsubscribe wendyg@CIX.CO.UK from this fortnightly digest, please visit: https://opensocietyfoundations.us1.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=52d98944f5466486ab8567329&id=1c0675de1d&e=e9c40b130c&c=e7f9c3ba0f Our mailing address is: Open Society Foundations, 4th Floor Herbal House, 8 Back Hill, London EC1R 5EN, United Kingdom © 2020 Open Society Foundations. Some rights reserved. 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News digest | Open Society Information Program | Week ending June 26, 2020
====================================================
The Information Program NEWS DIGEST, published on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month, aims to update colleagues in the Open Society Foundations and friends further afield about the news, opinions and events the Program team have been watching this fortnight. The views expressed in these stories do not necessarily reflect those of the Information Program or the Open Society Foundations. Prepared by Wendy M. Grossman.
Current and former grantees featured in this issue: Citizen Lab, EFF, La Quadrature du Net, Open Rights Group.
NEWS
=====
Manila Court Convicts Maria Ressa under Cyber Libel Law
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A court in Manila has convicted Maria Ressa, the Philippines' most prominent journalist, and a former colleague at Rappler, the news site she founded in 2012, of cyber libel, Jason Gutierrez and Alexandra Stevenson report at the New York Times. Each was fined $8,000 and could face up to six years in prison. Ressa faces seven more charges, including tax evasion, all of which she has denied. Index on Censorship calls the verdict "part of a campaign to silence dissenting voices in the Philippines". At Rappler, Lian Buan provides legal background and analysis of the verdict. Finally, at YouTube, the Center for Investigative Journalism presents Ressa's talk at last year's summer school, where she described the challenges and successes of founding and running Rappler.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/journalist-maria-ressa-found-guilty-of-cyber-libel-by-philippines-court/
https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2020/06/english-pen-and-index-on-censorship-condemn-prison-sentence-for-filipino-journalist-maria-ressa/
https://www.rappler.com/nation/263749-verdict-primer-legal-factual-issues-rappler-maria-ressa-cyber-libel-case
https://youtu.be/5ii4v2Fl-lQ
Big Tech Backs Away from Facial Recognition
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In a letter to US Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) and US Representatives Karen Bass (D-CA), Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), IBM CEO Arvind Krishna announced the company will no longer offer, develop, or research general-purpose facial recognition technology, Jay Peters reports at The Verge. Krishna went on to say that a national dialogue is needed to decide whether and how facial recognition should be employed by law enforcement. Within days, Isobel Asher Hamilton reports at Business Insider, Amazon and Microsoft promised to stop selling facial recognition systems to police, apparently inspired by the George Floyd murder and ensuing Black Lives Matter protests. At Fast Company, Kate Kaye looks at reactions to the ban, and quotes Safiya Noble, author of Algorithms of Oppression, who says the bans don't go far enough; instead what's needed is a wholesale recall of the technology. The Moscow Times reports that facial recognition cameras named "Orwell" will be installed in more than 43,000 Russian schools to ensure children's safety, take attendance, monitor teachers' working hours, and facilitate distance learning.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/8/21284683/ibm-no-longer-general-purpose-facial-recognition-analysis-software
https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-microsoft-ibm-halt-selling-facial-recognition-to-police-2020-6
https://www.fastcompany.com/90516450/ibm-microsoft-and-amazons-face-recognition-bans-dont-go-far-enough
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/06/16/russia-to-install-orwell-facial-recognition-tech-in-every-school-vedomosti-a70585
CJEU Strikes Down Hungary's NGO Foreign Funding Law
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The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that Hungary's 2017 Transparency of Organizations Receiving Foreign Funds law, which requires NGOs to register if they receive more than HUF7.2 million (€20,000) in foreign funding or face being shut down, is discriminatory and imposes restrictions contrary to EU rules, Lily Bayer reports at Politico. The law sparked protests in Hungary, and in July 2017 the European Commission began an infringement proceeding on the basis that it interferes with fundamental rights, particularly freedom of association.
https://www.politico.eu/article/hungary-ngo-law-struck-down-eu-top-court/
https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/european-union-court-rejects-hungarian-ngo-funding-law
French Constitutional Council Rejects Hate Speech Law
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The French Constitutional Council has rejected the law passed in May that requires social media companies and search engines to remove flagged hate speech within 24 hours and flagged terrorist propaganda and child sexual abuse material within one hour or face substantial fines, Romain Dillet reports at TechCrunch. The Council objected that the law would lead to censorship because the technical list of illicit content makes deciding what should and should not be banned difficult, and the short amount of time prohibits asking a court. At Politico, Laura Kayali notes that the European Commission wrote to the French government in November asking it to wait for the Digital Services Act to create an EU-wide standard on policing illegal content online and cited a warning from La Quadrature du Net that the law puts the police in charge of deciding censorship criteria. At EFF, Christoph Schmon calls the French bill "privatized enforcement" and summarizes the amicus brief it filed to support a challenge brought by 60 French senators to the French Supreme Court before the bill's promulgation.
https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/19/french-constitutional-authority-rejects-law-forcing-online-platforms-to-delete-hate-speech-content/
https://www.politico.eu/article/france-gives-final-green-light-to-law-cracking-down-on-hate-speech-online/
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/06/eff-files-amicus-brief-top-french-court-bring-down-controversial-avia-bill
University of California and Springer Nature Reach Open Access Agreement
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The University of California system and Springer Nature have reached agreement on an open access deal under which the publisher commits to explore making all articles published by UC corresponding authors free to read on publication, starting in 2022, Jeffrey Brainard reports at Science. The deal gives UC reading access to 1,000 more journals than under its current contract. In a press release, MIT Libraries announce that they have ended negotiations with Elsevier for a new journal contract because Elsevier could not meet the open access principles enshrined in the MIT Framework for Publisher Contracts, which has now been endorsed by 100 other institutions. At the New York Times, Roni Caryn Rabin looks at the time and volume pressures the pandemic has placed on medical journals and asks if the peer review process can survive after The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine both had to hastily retract papers whose flaws were discovered by journalists rather than scientific reviewers.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/huge-open-access-journal-deal-inked-university-california-and-springer-nature
http://news.mit.edu/2020/guided-by-open-access-principles-mit-ends-elsevier-negotiations-0611
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/14/health/virus-journals.html
EU Opens Two Antitrust Investigations into Apple
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The EU has opened two antitrust investigations into Apple, Katie Collins reports at CNet. One, which covers the App Store, was triggered by Spotify's 2019 complaint about the 30% commission Apple charges on in-app purchases, which claims that Apple is distorting competition in areas where it competes with other app developers. The other, which covers Apple Pay, focuses on the restrictions Apple places on how rival apps and services use the iPhone's near field communications capabilities, which the EU's antitrust commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, argues are particularly important as the pandemic pushes many consumers and retailers to prefer contactless payments. At Engadget, Mariella Moon reports that Basecamp CEO Jason Fried has written an open letter to explain that the App Store's payment policies forcibly insert Apple between companies and their customers by barring companies from accepting payment via any route outside the App Store and on that basis refusing to include Basecamp's "Hey" multi-platform subscription email service. Fried complains the real issue is lack of choice: Apple's policies limit companies' options for offering discounts, refunds, and exemptions.
https://www.cnet.com/news/eu-opens-antitrust-investigations-into-apple-pay-and-the-app-store/
https://www.engadget.com/basecamp-ceo-open-letter-apple-184856268.html
FEATURES AND ANALYSIS
====================
UK Political Parties Base Profiling on Inaccurate Data
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In this report, the Open Rights Group studies the data profiling activities of the UK's main political parties, and finds, based on subject access requests that the data is highly inaccurate, that profiling does not work, and that the legal basis under data protection law is questionable. ORG recommends moving to an opt-in basis for profiling, and clarifying the legal basis; it also provides a tool individuals can use to help them understand the data parties have on them. In a Twitter thread, fantasy writer Claire Ryan explains the data corruption consequences for the Trump campaign of a prank in which teens on TikTok registered with fake email addresses and Google phone numbers for hundreds of thousands of tickets to his Tulsa, Oklahoma rally that they had no intention of using.
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/campaign/who-do-they-think-you-are/
https://twitter.com/aetherlev/status/1274726592481091587
US Public Health Officials Face Violent Threats
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In this article, Quartz considers the impact of the request by Team Telecom, a committee under the US Department of Justice, that the Federal Communications Commission block approval for the planned Pacific Light Cable Network. The 8,000-mile cable, announced in 2016 as a partnership between Google, Facebook, and others, would be the first direct US-Hong Kong submarine connection and is intended to turn Hong Kong into a global data hub. Team Telecom cited "national security" concerns and threats to US persons' data.
https://qz.com/1870356/google-facebook-internet-cable-caught-in-us-china-tensions/
Coming Attractions: Death or Utopia in the Next Few Decades
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In this YouTube clip of a recent Stanford seminar, a group including Silicon Valley journalist John Markoff, Foresight Institute co-founder Carol Dumaine, and Penn State environmental expert Michael Mann, among others, discuss the challenges of the next three decades: the end of Moore's Law, the disrupted global economy, and the existential risk of climate change. The way we view the future is significant, Marjkoff argues, because so many of today's technologies have been inspired by science fiction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJLhM-5i9Y4
Pandemic Raises Financial Challenge for Journalism Despite Rising Demand for News
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In this blog posting, Nic Newman summarizes this year's digital news report from the Reuters Institute, which finds, based on surveys in the UK, US, Germany, Spain, South Korea, and Argentina, that the pandemic has fueled consumption of news from both traditional and online, but is causing income to crater as advertisers prepare for the inevitable recession. The report examines the growing importance of email newsletters and podcasts in increasing engagement and loyalty and considers the good and bad sides of paywalls, which provide a revenue stream but lock away quality journalism at a time when public access is sorely needed. It also finds that 60% of those surveyed prefer news that has no particular point of view.
http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/survey/2020/overview-key-findings-2020/
Citizen Lab Data Leads to Criminal Hacking-for-Hire Investigation
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In this article at the New York Times, Nicole Hong, Barry Meier, and Ronen Bergman outline a federal criminal investigation into a hacking-for-hire operation that over many years has targeted the email accounts of government officials, journalists, banks, environmental activists, and other individuals. The investigation is based on information provided by Citizen Lab in a new report that finds that hiring hackers may be a common practice among private investigators. In the case covered by the Times, Citizen Lab has concluded with "high confidence" that the operation was carried out by a company in India that advertises "ethical hacking" services. One man, who ran a private investigations company in Israel, has already been arrested and charged with four criminal counts.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/nyregion/exxon-mobil-hackers-greenpeace.html
EU Considers AI's Future
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In this blog posting, Joanna Bryson, professor of technology and ethics at Berlin's Hertie School, critiques the EU's white paper consultation on AI, which she believes is heading in the right direction. Among her main points, explaining AI is actually easy; humans are always the responsible parties; more data doesn't automatically mean more intelligence; and the EU needs to add program code, architecture documents, and specifications to the list of documents companies are required to be able to produce for inspection. In its latest issue of Technology Quarterly, the Economist outlines the limitations of AI; for both practical and cognitive reasons we need a new breakthrough to make any further progress.
https://joanna-bryson.blogspot.com/2020/06/regulating-ai-as-pervasive-technology.html
https://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2020/06/11/an-understanding-of-ais-limitations-is-starting-to-sink-in
***
DIARY
==============
*** In light of the coronavirus outbreak, please follow your organization's travel guidelines, and check links to events listed below regularly for participation restrictions and updates as to whether events will go ahead.***
If you would like your event listed in this mail, email
info.digest@opensocietyfoundations.org.
ONLINE EVENTS
PrivacyCon
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July 21, 2020
Washington, DC
The US Federal Trade Commission's fifth annual PrivacyCon, which is free and open to the public, will focus in particular on the privacy of health data collected, stored, and transmitted by mobile apps.
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/events-calendar/privacycon-2020
HACKERS ON PLANET EARTH
----------------------------------------
July 25-August 2, 2020
New York, NY, USA
As part of reimagining the convention as an online event, HOPE will expand to nine days filled with the normal number of talks. Ticket-buyers will have exclusive access to presenters to ask questions, participate in workshops, and interact with other attendees, and will also receive an exclusive conference T-shirt and badge. HOPE expects that some who would have trouble traveling to the US will now be able to attend. The program is still being finalized. HOPE expects to return as a physical conference in 2021.
https://www.2600.com
DEF CON SAFE MODE
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August 7-9, 2020
DEFCON is one of the oldest and largest continuously running hacker conventions.
https://forum.defcon.org/node/232005
Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security
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August 9-11, 2020
The 16th Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS) will bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers and practitioners in human computer interaction, security, and privacy. The program will include technical papers, workshops and tutorials, lightning talks, and a poster session.
https://www.usenix.org/conference/soups2020
ONGOING
Ada Lovelace Institute
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London's Ada Lovelace Institute, founded in 2019 to ensure the ethical use of AI, is running a series of events on the issues surrounding the use of technologies in response to the pandemic.
https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/events/
Bace Security
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Recent webinars sponsored by Bace Security include a "fireside" discussion of voting methods with Rebecca Mercuri, conducted the first security analysis of electronic voting in 2000, and security veteran Peter Neumann, and methods for privacy-protecting digital contact tracing with Arka Bala (ContextGrid) and serial entrepreneur and investor Aman Johan.
https://www.bacesecurity.org/page/2686
Civic Hall
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New York's Civic Hall has moved a number of events online. Coming up toward the end of May are events on designing stories to expose racial inequities and an interactive discussion of the new book by Sasha Costanza-Chock, Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need.
https://civichall.org/event-calendar/
Data & Society
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April-May
Data & Society has moved its weekly Databites and Network Power Hours programs into online interactive formats for the rest of 2020.
Databites: https://datasociety.net/library/design-justice/
Network Power Hours: https://datasociety.net/library/community-and-accessibility-online/
EFF
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EFF and its local counterparts in the Electronic Frontier Alliance are running numerous events on subjects such as technology education, open source, voting security, and content moderation.
https://www.eff.org/events/list?type=event
Future in Review
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Future in Review is running a series of online "FiReSide" events. Recent topics include China and the future technology struggle.
https://www.futureinreview.com/fireside/
Legal Frontiers in Digital Media 2020
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May-June 2020,
The Berkeley Center for Law and Technology's online alternative to its annual conference on emerging legal issues at the intersection of digital media, freedom of speech, and law includes live seminars (recorded and available for later playback) on content moderation and the coronavirus (April 15); a series on Chinese law, trade, and intellectual property (beginning April 22 and extending through May); and the right to repair (August 28).
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/bclt/
London Futurists
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The London Futurists group, led by former Psion and Symbian architect David Wood, is presenting near-weekly speaker-led events focusing on potential radical transformations of humanity and society. Upcoming topics include genetic engineering (May 16). Event recordings are made available soon after meetings conclude.
https://www.meetup.com/London-Futurists/events/past/
Open Data Institute
----------------------------------------
The ODI's Friday lunchtime talks have moved online. These one-hour talks cover topics such as data ethics, social equity, and trust.
https://theodi.org/events/talks/
Open Rights Group
----------------------------------------
Ongoing
The Open Rights Group and its local offshoots are running frequent online presentations and discussions of digital privacy, democracy, and data exploitation. Recent topics have included the launch of ORG's data and democracy report, a proposed law to ensure that contact tracing apps are surrounded with privacy-protecting safeguards, and the effect of the pandemic on democratic institutions.
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/events/
Public Knowledge
----------------------------------------
Public Knowledge is running public web events on subjects such as algorithmic amplification of hate speech, the survival of local journalism, and how to protect privacy during a pandemic.
https://www.publicknowledge.org/events/
RUSI
----------------------------------------
London's Royal United Services Institute is running frequent online events considering topics relating to international politics, terrorism, financial crime, policing, and warfare, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes it will bring.
https://rusi.org/event/mapping-pandemic-policing-uk-during-covid-19
Singularity University
----------------------------------------
May, 2020
Singularity University has an ongoing series of events. July will see four discussions on the topic of the future of food, agriculture, food supply chains, and nutrition. Past topics have included the future of work and AI.
https://su.org/events/
Transnational Institute
----------------------------------------
TNI's series of weekly COVID Capitalism webinars covers various aspects of transforming democracy, politics, and the economy for a fairer post-COVID world. June events include COVID-19 and incarceration (June 3); big tech, data, and human rights, a joint event with the Just Net Coalition (June 10); borders and migration (June 17); and the broken trade system (June 24).
https://www.tni.org/en/webinars
PHYSICAL WORLD EVENTS
CANCELED Aspen Ideas Festival
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June 27-July 3, 2020
Aspen, Colorado
Presented by the Aspen Institute in partnership with The Atlantic, the Aspen Ideas Festival is a public gathering place for leaders from around the globe and across many disciplines to present and discuss the ideas and issues that both shape our lives and challenge our times. Anyone may purchase a pass to attend.
https://www.aspenideas.org/pages/register
MOVED ONLINE FTC PrivacyCon
----------------------------------------
July 21, 2020
Washington, DC
The US Federal Trade Commission's fifth annual PrivacyCon, which is free and open to the public, will focus in particular on the privacy of health data collected, stored, and transmitted by mobile apps.
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/events-calendar/privacycon-2020
MOVED ONLINE Netroots Nation
----------------------------------------
August 13-15, 2020
Denver, Colorado, USA
For more than a decade, Netroots Nation, which began as a convention for the most active members of the DailyKos community, has hosted the largest annual conference for progressives and other organizers and advocacy groups. They've drawn thousands of attendees from around the country and beyond, to develop their work around topics such as sharing data, developing technology talent, and managing digital campaigns.
https://www.netrootsnation.org/
CANCELED 86th World Library and Information Congress
----------------------------------------
August 15-21, 2020
Dublin, Ireland
WLIC is the annual conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).
https://2020.ifla.org/
Thotcon
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September 11-12, 2020
Chicago, Ilinois, USA
The 11th Chicago-based Thotcon hacking conference is a non-commercial event intended to combine a top-quality information security conference with a casual and social experience.
https://thotcon.org/
AI for Good
----------------------------------------
September 21-25, 2020
Geneva, Switzerland
The AI for Good Global Summit is the leading United Nations platform for global and inclusive dialogue on AI. The Summit is hosted each year in Geneva by the International Telecommunications Union, in partnership with sibling UN agencies, the XPRIZE Foundation, and ACM.
https://aiforgood.itu.int/
CANCELED EIFL General Assembly
----------------------------------------
September 24-26, 2020
Vilnius, Lithuania
The GA is EIFL's major annual knowledge-sharing and networking event for library professionals in developing and transition economy countries.
https://www.eifl.net/events/eifl-general-assembly
POSTPONED We Robot 2020
----------------------------------------
Awaiting update
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
We Robot is an interdisciplinary conference on the legal and policy questions relating to robots. The increasing sophistication of robots and their widespread deployment everywhere - from the home, to hospitals, to public spaces, and even to the battlefield - disrupts existing legal regimes and requires new thinking on policy issues. The conference fosters conversations between the people designing, building, and deploying robots, and those who design or influence the legal and social structures in which robots will operate.
https://techlaw.uottawa.ca/werobot
Future in Review
----------------------------------------
October 6-9, 2020
La Jolla, CA, USA
Future in Review 2019 is a global conference on the intersection of technology and the economy, offering new partnerships, projects, and plans, and the opportunity to analyze and create the future of technology, economics, pure science, the environment, genomics, education, and more.
https://www.futureinreview.com
Privacy Law Forum
----------------------------------------
October 9, 2020
Palo Alto, CA
The program will be very similar to the one originally planned, covering all the hot issues in privacy and cybersecurity law. Registration remains open.
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/bclt/bcltevents/2020-privacy-law-forum/
Web Summit
----------------------------------------
November 2-5, 2020
Lisbon, Portugal
At a time of great uncertainty for many industries and indeed, the world itself, Web Summit gathers the founders and CEOs of technology companies, fast-growing startups, policymakers and heads of state to ask a simple question: Where to next?
https://websummit.com/
Freedom not Fear
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November 6-9, 2020
Brussels, Belgium
Freedom not Fear is supported by a broad alliance including political parties, professional associations, trade unions, and freedom activists and hopes to join forces with NGOs from all over the world in order to build a strong alliance to oppose the threat increasing surveillance poses to freedom of speech in a digitized world and privacy in the knowledge society.
https://www.freedomnotfear.org/
International Open Data Conference
----------------------------------------
November 18-20, 2020
Nairobi, Kenya
The sixth edition of IODC will be hosted by the government of Kenya with support from the OD4D Network, IDRC, and the World Bank. The conference program will be co-created with the community via an open call for proposals to ensure a diverse agenda of interactive sessions, workshops, and ancillary events. A special focus will be placed on building bridges with the broader data community, exploring how to bring the power of the newest technologies to some of the world's oldest problems, and creating new models for collaboration in order to drive social and economic value from open data in Africa and around the world.
https://opendatacon.org/
WEIS
----------------------------------------
December 14-15, 2020
Brussels, Belgium
The annual workshop on the economics of information security is a cross-disciplinary event to develop more effective approaches to information security.
https://weis2020.econinfosec.org/
Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection
----------------------------------------
January 27-29, 2021
Brussels, Belgium
As a world-leading multidisciplinary conference CPDP offers the cutting edge in legal, regulatory, academic and technological development in privacy and data protection. Within an atmosphere of independence and mutual respect, CPDP 2021, "Enforcing Rights in a Changing World", will gather academics, lawyers, practitioners, policy-makers, industry, and civil society from all over the world to offer an arena to exchange ideas and discuss the latest emerging issues and trends.
https://www.cpdpconferences.org/
MozFest 2021
----------------------------------------
March 2021
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
MozFest programs and events are co-created by a group of dynamic, vibrant and varied community collaborators, all working towards one goal: the opportunity for everyone to live a healthy online life.
https://www.mozillafestival.org/en/
Wikimania 2021
----------------------------------------
TBD
Bangkok, Thailand
Wikimania 2020, now Wikimania 2021, will be the 16th Wikimania conference, an annual event for the international Wikimedia community.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2020
Privacy Law Scholars 2021
----------------------------------------
June 3-4, 2021 TBC
Washington, DC, USA
Privacy Law Scholars is a paper workshop intended to improve the quality of legal scholarship in the area of privacy. Participants submit works-in-progress for workshop discussions led by commenters on the papers.
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/bclt/bcltevents/2020-privacy-law-scholars-conference/
Digitising Early Childhood
----------------------------------------
June 2021
Milan, Italy
Contemporary children and their parents are inventing what it is to have a digital childhood, and in doing so are introducing families, schools and policy makers to new ways of thinking, doing and being. This conference discusses and expands research trajectories through these uncertainties and aims to build bridges across the different disciplines and strands of research in this area. It will forge a new way forward and consolidate the base of what we already know, revealing what we have yet to investigate and address, and what important insights are emerging that must be taken seriously.
http://www.digitisingearlychildhood.com/2020-conference.html
CPDP LatAm 2021
----------------------------------------
Postponed from June 23-25, 2020
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The first Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection Latin America will be held in conjunction with the first Latin American Privacy Law Scholars conference and MyData's first Latin American meeting. The theme will be "Data Protection in Latin America: Democracy, Innovation, and Regulation". The organizers hope it will be a unique opportunity to bring together varied and complementary perspectives on data protection and its impact on democracy, innovation, and regulation in Latin America.
https://cpdp.lat/en/
DEF CON 29
----------------------------------------
August 5-8, 2021
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Def Con is one of the oldest and best-attended hacker conferences. Each year it attracts thousands of professional and amateur security researchers.
https://www.defcon.org
Singularity University Global Summit 2021
----------------------------------------
August 23-25, 2021
Los Angeles, California, USA
Global Summit 2021
Singularity University's premier annual gathering brings together 2,000 changemakers for talks on AI, augmented/virtual relity, blockchain, the future of work, impact, investing, robotics and more.
https://su.org/summits/su-global-summit/
World Library and Information Congress 2021
----------------------------------------
August 2021
Rotterdam, Netherlands
WLIC is the annual conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).
https://2020.ifla.org/
***
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The Information Program NEWS DIGEST, published on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month, aims to update colleagues in the Open Society Foundations and friends further afield about the news, opinions and events the Program team have been watching this fortnight. The views expressed in these stories do not necessarily reflect those of the Information Program or the Open Society Foundations. Prepared by Wendy M. Grossman.
Current and former grantees featured in this issue: Citizen Lab, EFF, La Quadrature du Net, Open Rights Group.
NEWS
=====
Manila Court Convicts Maria Ressa under Cyber Libel Law
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A court in Manila has convicted Maria Ressa, the Philippines' most prominent journalist, and a former colleague at Rappler, the news site she founded in 2012, of cyber libel, Jason Gutierrez and Alexandra Stevenson report at the New York Times. Each was fined $8,000 and could face up to six years in prison. Ressa faces seven more charges, including tax evasion, all of which she has denied. Index on Censorship calls the verdict "part of a campaign to silence dissenting voices in the Philippines". At Rappler, Lian Buan provides legal background and analysis of the verdict. Finally, at YouTube, the Center for Investigative Journalism presents Ressa's talk at last year's summer school, where she described the challenges and successes of founding and running Rappler.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/journalist-maria-ressa-found-guilty-of-cyber-libel-by-philippines-court/
https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2020/06/english-pen-and-index-on-censorship-condemn-prison-sentence-for-filipino-journalist-maria-ressa/
https://www.rappler.com/nation/263749-verdict-primer-legal-factual-issues-rappler-maria-ressa-cyber-libel-case
https://youtu.be/5ii4v2Fl-lQ
Big Tech Backs Away from Facial Recognition
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In a letter to US Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) and US Representatives Karen Bass (D-CA), Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), IBM CEO Arvind Krishna announced the company will no longer offer, develop, or research general-purpose facial recognition technology, Jay Peters reports at The Verge. Krishna went on to say that a national dialogue is needed to decide whether and how facial recognition should be employed by law enforcement. Within days, Isobel Asher Hamilton reports at Business Insider, Amazon and Microsoft promised to stop selling facial recognition systems to police, apparently inspired by the George Floyd murder and ensuing Black Lives Matter protests. At Fast Company, Kate Kaye looks at reactions to the ban, and quotes Safiya Noble, author of Algorithms of Oppression, who says the bans don't go far enough; instead what's needed is a wholesale recall of the technology. The Moscow Times reports that facial recognition cameras named "Orwell" will be installed in more than 43,000 Russian schools to ensure children's safety, take attendance, monitor teachers' working hours, and facilitate distance learning.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/8/21284683/ibm-no-longer-general-purpose-facial-recognition-analysis-software
https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-microsoft-ibm-halt-selling-facial-recognition-to-police-2020-6
https://www.fastcompany.com/90516450/ibm-microsoft-and-amazons-face-recognition-bans-dont-go-far-enough
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/06/16/russia-to-install-orwell-facial-recognition-tech-in-every-school-vedomosti-a70585
CJEU Strikes Down Hungary's NGO Foreign Funding Law
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that Hungary's 2017 Transparency of Organizations Receiving Foreign Funds law, which requires NGOs to register if they receive more than HUF7.2 million (€20,000) in foreign funding or face being shut down, is discriminatory and imposes restrictions contrary to EU rules, Lily Bayer reports at Politico. The law sparked protests in Hungary, and in July 2017 the European Commission began an infringement proceeding on the basis that it interferes with fundamental rights, particularly freedom of association.
https://www.politico.eu/article/hungary-ngo-law-struck-down-eu-top-court/
https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/european-union-court-rejects-hungarian-ngo-funding-law
French Constitutional Council Rejects Hate Speech Law
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The French Constitutional Council has rejected the law passed in May that requires social media companies and search engines to remove flagged hate speech within 24 hours and flagged terrorist propaganda and child sexual abuse material within one hour or face substantial fines, Romain Dillet reports at TechCrunch. The Council objected that the law would lead to censorship because the technical list of illicit content makes deciding what should and should not be banned difficult, and the short amount of time prohibits asking a court. At Politico, Laura Kayali notes that the European Commission wrote to the French government in November asking it to wait for the Digital Services Act to create an EU-wide standard on policing illegal content online and cited a warning from La Quadrature du Net that the law puts the police in charge of deciding censorship criteria. At EFF, Christoph Schmon calls the French bill "privatized enforcement" and summarizes the amicus brief it filed to support a challenge brought by 60 French senators to the French Supreme Court before the bill's promulgation.
https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/19/french-constitutional-authority-rejects-law-forcing-online-platforms-to-delete-hate-speech-content/
https://www.politico.eu/article/france-gives-final-green-light-to-law-cracking-down-on-hate-speech-online/
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/06/eff-files-amicus-brief-top-french-court-bring-down-controversial-avia-bill
University of California and Springer Nature Reach Open Access Agreement
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The University of California system and Springer Nature have reached agreement on an open access deal under which the publisher commits to explore making all articles published by UC corresponding authors free to read on publication, starting in 2022, Jeffrey Brainard reports at Science. The deal gives UC reading access to 1,000 more journals than under its current contract. In a press release, MIT Libraries announce that they have ended negotiations with Elsevier for a new journal contract because Elsevier could not meet the open access principles enshrined in the MIT Framework for Publisher Contracts, which has now been endorsed by 100 other institutions. At the New York Times, Roni Caryn Rabin looks at the time and volume pressures the pandemic has placed on medical journals and asks if the peer review process can survive after The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine both had to hastily retract papers whose flaws were discovered by journalists rather than scientific reviewers.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/huge-open-access-journal-deal-inked-university-california-and-springer-nature
http://news.mit.edu/2020/guided-by-open-access-principles-mit-ends-elsevier-negotiations-0611
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/14/health/virus-journals.html
EU Opens Two Antitrust Investigations into Apple
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The EU has opened two antitrust investigations into Apple, Katie Collins reports at CNet. One, which covers the App Store, was triggered by Spotify's 2019 complaint about the 30% commission Apple charges on in-app purchases, which claims that Apple is distorting competition in areas where it competes with other app developers. The other, which covers Apple Pay, focuses on the restrictions Apple places on how rival apps and services use the iPhone's near field communications capabilities, which the EU's antitrust commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, argues are particularly important as the pandemic pushes many consumers and retailers to prefer contactless payments. At Engadget, Mariella Moon reports that Basecamp CEO Jason Fried has written an open letter to explain that the App Store's payment policies forcibly insert Apple between companies and their customers by barring companies from accepting payment via any route outside the App Store and on that basis refusing to include Basecamp's "Hey" multi-platform subscription email service. Fried complains the real issue is lack of choice: Apple's policies limit companies' options for offering discounts, refunds, and exemptions.
https://www.cnet.com/news/eu-opens-antitrust-investigations-into-apple-pay-and-the-app-store/
https://www.engadget.com/basecamp-ceo-open-letter-apple-184856268.html
FEATURES AND ANALYSIS
====================
UK Political Parties Base Profiling on Inaccurate Data
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In this report, the Open Rights Group studies the data profiling activities of the UK's main political parties, and finds, based on subject access requests that the data is highly inaccurate, that profiling does not work, and that the legal basis under data protection law is questionable. ORG recommends moving to an opt-in basis for profiling, and clarifying the legal basis; it also provides a tool individuals can use to help them understand the data parties have on them. In a Twitter thread, fantasy writer Claire Ryan explains the data corruption consequences for the Trump campaign of a prank in which teens on TikTok registered with fake email addresses and Google phone numbers for hundreds of thousands of tickets to his Tulsa, Oklahoma rally that they had no intention of using.
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/campaign/who-do-they-think-you-are/
https://twitter.com/aetherlev/status/1274726592481091587
US Public Health Officials Face Violent Threats
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In this article, Quartz considers the impact of the request by Team Telecom, a committee under the US Department of Justice, that the Federal Communications Commission block approval for the planned Pacific Light Cable Network. The 8,000-mile cable, announced in 2016 as a partnership between Google, Facebook, and others, would be the first direct US-Hong Kong submarine connection and is intended to turn Hong Kong into a global data hub. Team Telecom cited "national security" concerns and threats to US persons' data.
https://qz.com/1870356/google-facebook-internet-cable-caught-in-us-china-tensions/
Coming Attractions: Death or Utopia in the Next Few Decades
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In this YouTube clip of a recent Stanford seminar, a group including Silicon Valley journalist John Markoff, Foresight Institute co-founder Carol Dumaine, and Penn State environmental expert Michael Mann, among others, discuss the challenges of the next three decades: the end of Moore's Law, the disrupted global economy, and the existential risk of climate change. The way we view the future is significant, Marjkoff argues, because so many of today's technologies have been inspired by science fiction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJLhM-5i9Y4
Pandemic Raises Financial Challenge for Journalism Despite Rising Demand for News
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In this blog posting, Nic Newman summarizes this year's digital news report from the Reuters Institute, which finds, based on surveys in the UK, US, Germany, Spain, South Korea, and Argentina, that the pandemic has fueled consumption of news from both traditional and online, but is causing income to crater as advertisers prepare for the inevitable recession. The report examines the growing importance of email newsletters and podcasts in increasing engagement and loyalty and considers the good and bad sides of paywalls, which provide a revenue stream but lock away quality journalism at a time when public access is sorely needed. It also finds that 60% of those surveyed prefer news that has no particular point of view.
http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/survey/2020/overview-key-findings-2020/
Citizen Lab Data Leads to Criminal Hacking-for-Hire Investigation
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In this article at the New York Times, Nicole Hong, Barry Meier, and Ronen Bergman outline a federal criminal investigation into a hacking-for-hire operation that over many years has targeted the email accounts of government officials, journalists, banks, environmental activists, and other individuals. The investigation is based on information provided by Citizen Lab in a new report that finds that hiring hackers may be a common practice among private investigators. In the case covered by the Times, Citizen Lab has concluded with "high confidence" that the operation was carried out by a company in India that advertises "ethical hacking" services. One man, who ran a private investigations company in Israel, has already been arrested and charged with four criminal counts.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/nyregion/exxon-mobil-hackers-greenpeace.html
EU Considers AI's Future
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In this blog posting, Joanna Bryson, professor of technology and ethics at Berlin's Hertie School, critiques the EU's white paper consultation on AI, which she believes is heading in the right direction. Among her main points, explaining AI is actually easy; humans are always the responsible parties; more data doesn't automatically mean more intelligence; and the EU needs to add program code, architecture documents, and specifications to the list of documents companies are required to be able to produce for inspection. In its latest issue of Technology Quarterly, the Economist outlines the limitations of AI; for both practical and cognitive reasons we need a new breakthrough to make any further progress.
https://joanna-bryson.blogspot.com/2020/06/regulating-ai-as-pervasive-technology.html
https://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2020/06/11/an-understanding-of-ais-limitations-is-starting-to-sink-in
***
DIARY
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*** In light of the coronavirus outbreak, please follow your organization's travel guidelines, and check links to events listed below regularly for participation restrictions and updates as to whether events will go ahead.***
If you would like your event listed in this mail, email
info.digest@opensocietyfoundations.org.
ONLINE EVENTS
PrivacyCon
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July 21, 2020
Washington, DC
The US Federal Trade Commission's fifth annual PrivacyCon, which is free and open to the public, will focus in particular on the privacy of health data collected, stored, and transmitted by mobile apps.
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/events-calendar/privacycon-2020
HACKERS ON PLANET EARTH
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July 25-August 2, 2020
New York, NY, USA
As part of reimagining the convention as an online event, HOPE will expand to nine days filled with the normal number of talks. Ticket-buyers will have exclusive access to presenters to ask questions, participate in workshops, and interact with other attendees, and will also receive an exclusive conference T-shirt and badge. HOPE expects that some who would have trouble traveling to the US will now be able to attend. The program is still being finalized. HOPE expects to return as a physical conference in 2021.
https://www.2600.com
DEF CON SAFE MODE
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August 7-9, 2020
DEFCON is one of the oldest and largest continuously running hacker conventions.
https://forum.defcon.org/node/232005
Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security
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August 9-11, 2020
The 16th Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS) will bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers and practitioners in human computer interaction, security, and privacy. The program will include technical papers, workshops and tutorials, lightning talks, and a poster session.
https://www.usenix.org/conference/soups2020
ONGOING
Ada Lovelace Institute
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London's Ada Lovelace Institute, founded in 2019 to ensure the ethical use of AI, is running a series of events on the issues surrounding the use of technologies in response to the pandemic.
https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/events/
Bace Security
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Recent webinars sponsored by Bace Security include a "fireside" discussion of voting methods with Rebecca Mercuri, conducted the first security analysis of electronic voting in 2000, and security veteran Peter Neumann, and methods for privacy-protecting digital contact tracing with Arka Bala (ContextGrid) and serial entrepreneur and investor Aman Johan.
https://www.bacesecurity.org/page/2686
Civic Hall
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New York's Civic Hall has moved a number of events online. Coming up toward the end of May are events on designing stories to expose racial inequities and an interactive discussion of the new book by Sasha Costanza-Chock, Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need.
https://civichall.org/event-calendar/
Data & Society
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April-May
Data & Society has moved its weekly Databites and Network Power Hours programs into online interactive formats for the rest of 2020.
Databites: https://datasociety.net/library/design-justice/
Network Power Hours: https://datasociety.net/library/community-and-accessibility-online/
EFF
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EFF and its local counterparts in the Electronic Frontier Alliance are running numerous events on subjects such as technology education, open source, voting security, and content moderation.
https://www.eff.org/events/list?type=event
Future in Review
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Future in Review is running a series of online "FiReSide" events. Recent topics include China and the future technology struggle.
https://www.futureinreview.com/fireside/
Legal Frontiers in Digital Media 2020
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May-June 2020,
The Berkeley Center for Law and Technology's online alternative to its annual conference on emerging legal issues at the intersection of digital media, freedom of speech, and law includes live seminars (recorded and available for later playback) on content moderation and the coronavirus (April 15); a series on Chinese law, trade, and intellectual property (beginning April 22 and extending through May); and the right to repair (August 28).
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/bclt/
London Futurists
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The London Futurists group, led by former Psion and Symbian architect David Wood, is presenting near-weekly speaker-led events focusing on potential radical transformations of humanity and society. Upcoming topics include genetic engineering (May 16). Event recordings are made available soon after meetings conclude.
https://www.meetup.com/London-Futurists/events/past/
Open Data Institute
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The ODI's Friday lunchtime talks have moved online. These one-hour talks cover topics such as data ethics, social equity, and trust.
https://theodi.org/events/talks/
Open Rights Group
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Ongoing
The Open Rights Group and its local offshoots are running frequent online presentations and discussions of digital privacy, democracy, and data exploitation. Recent topics have included the launch of ORG's data and democracy report, a proposed law to ensure that contact tracing apps are surrounded with privacy-protecting safeguards, and the effect of the pandemic on democratic institutions.
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/events/
Public Knowledge
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Public Knowledge is running public web events on subjects such as algorithmic amplification of hate speech, the survival of local journalism, and how to protect privacy during a pandemic.
https://www.publicknowledge.org/events/
RUSI
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London's Royal United Services Institute is running frequent online events considering topics relating to international politics, terrorism, financial crime, policing, and warfare, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes it will bring.
https://rusi.org/event/mapping-pandemic-policing-uk-during-covid-19
Singularity University
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May, 2020
Singularity University has an ongoing series of events. July will see four discussions on the topic of the future of food, agriculture, food supply chains, and nutrition. Past topics have included the future of work and AI.
https://su.org/events/
Transnational Institute
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TNI's series of weekly COVID Capitalism webinars covers various aspects of transforming democracy, politics, and the economy for a fairer post-COVID world. June events include COVID-19 and incarceration (June 3); big tech, data, and human rights, a joint event with the Just Net Coalition (June 10); borders and migration (June 17); and the broken trade system (June 24).
https://www.tni.org/en/webinars
PHYSICAL WORLD EVENTS
CANCELED Aspen Ideas Festival
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June 27-July 3, 2020
Aspen, Colorado
Presented by the Aspen Institute in partnership with The Atlantic, the Aspen Ideas Festival is a public gathering place for leaders from around the globe and across many disciplines to present and discuss the ideas and issues that both shape our lives and challenge our times. Anyone may purchase a pass to attend.
https://www.aspenideas.org/pages/register
MOVED ONLINE FTC PrivacyCon
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July 21, 2020
Washington, DC
The US Federal Trade Commission's fifth annual PrivacyCon, which is free and open to the public, will focus in particular on the privacy of health data collected, stored, and transmitted by mobile apps.
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/events-calendar/privacycon-2020
MOVED ONLINE Netroots Nation
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August 13-15, 2020
Denver, Colorado, USA
For more than a decade, Netroots Nation, which began as a convention for the most active members of the DailyKos community, has hosted the largest annual conference for progressives and other organizers and advocacy groups. They've drawn thousands of attendees from around the country and beyond, to develop their work around topics such as sharing data, developing technology talent, and managing digital campaigns.
https://www.netrootsnation.org/
CANCELED 86th World Library and Information Congress
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August 15-21, 2020
Dublin, Ireland
WLIC is the annual conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).
https://2020.ifla.org/
Thotcon
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September 11-12, 2020
Chicago, Ilinois, USA
The 11th Chicago-based Thotcon hacking conference is a non-commercial event intended to combine a top-quality information security conference with a casual and social experience.
https://thotcon.org/
AI for Good
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September 21-25, 2020
Geneva, Switzerland
The AI for Good Global Summit is the leading United Nations platform for global and inclusive dialogue on AI. The Summit is hosted each year in Geneva by the International Telecommunications Union, in partnership with sibling UN agencies, the XPRIZE Foundation, and ACM.
https://aiforgood.itu.int/
CANCELED EIFL General Assembly
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September 24-26, 2020
Vilnius, Lithuania
The GA is EIFL's major annual knowledge-sharing and networking event for library professionals in developing and transition economy countries.
https://www.eifl.net/events/eifl-general-assembly
POSTPONED We Robot 2020
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Awaiting update
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
We Robot is an interdisciplinary conference on the legal and policy questions relating to robots. The increasing sophistication of robots and their widespread deployment everywhere - from the home, to hospitals, to public spaces, and even to the battlefield - disrupts existing legal regimes and requires new thinking on policy issues. The conference fosters conversations between the people designing, building, and deploying robots, and those who design or influence the legal and social structures in which robots will operate.
https://techlaw.uottawa.ca/werobot
Future in Review
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October 6-9, 2020
La Jolla, CA, USA
Future in Review 2019 is a global conference on the intersection of technology and the economy, offering new partnerships, projects, and plans, and the opportunity to analyze and create the future of technology, economics, pure science, the environment, genomics, education, and more.
https://www.futureinreview.com
Privacy Law Forum
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October 9, 2020
Palo Alto, CA
The program will be very similar to the one originally planned, covering all the hot issues in privacy and cybersecurity law. Registration remains open.
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/bclt/bcltevents/2020-privacy-law-forum/
Web Summit
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November 2-5, 2020
Lisbon, Portugal
At a time of great uncertainty for many industries and indeed, the world itself, Web Summit gathers the founders and CEOs of technology companies, fast-growing startups, policymakers and heads of state to ask a simple question: Where to next?
https://websummit.com/
Freedom not Fear
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November 6-9, 2020
Brussels, Belgium
Freedom not Fear is supported by a broad alliance including political parties, professional associations, trade unions, and freedom activists and hopes to join forces with NGOs from all over the world in order to build a strong alliance to oppose the threat increasing surveillance poses to freedom of speech in a digitized world and privacy in the knowledge society.
https://www.freedomnotfear.org/
International Open Data Conference
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November 18-20, 2020
Nairobi, Kenya
The sixth edition of IODC will be hosted by the government of Kenya with support from the OD4D Network, IDRC, and the World Bank. The conference program will be co-created with the community via an open call for proposals to ensure a diverse agenda of interactive sessions, workshops, and ancillary events. A special focus will be placed on building bridges with the broader data community, exploring how to bring the power of the newest technologies to some of the world's oldest problems, and creating new models for collaboration in order to drive social and economic value from open data in Africa and around the world.
https://opendatacon.org/
WEIS
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December 14-15, 2020
Brussels, Belgium
The annual workshop on the economics of information security is a cross-disciplinary event to develop more effective approaches to information security.
https://weis2020.econinfosec.org/
Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection
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January 27-29, 2021
Brussels, Belgium
As a world-leading multidisciplinary conference CPDP offers the cutting edge in legal, regulatory, academic and technological development in privacy and data protection. Within an atmosphere of independence and mutual respect, CPDP 2021, "Enforcing Rights in a Changing World", will gather academics, lawyers, practitioners, policy-makers, industry, and civil society from all over the world to offer an arena to exchange ideas and discuss the latest emerging issues and trends.
https://www.cpdpconferences.org/
MozFest 2021
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March 2021
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
MozFest programs and events are co-created by a group of dynamic, vibrant and varied community collaborators, all working towards one goal: the opportunity for everyone to live a healthy online life.
https://www.mozillafestival.org/en/
Wikimania 2021
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TBD
Bangkok, Thailand
Wikimania 2020, now Wikimania 2021, will be the 16th Wikimania conference, an annual event for the international Wikimedia community.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2020
Privacy Law Scholars 2021
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June 3-4, 2021 TBC
Washington, DC, USA
Privacy Law Scholars is a paper workshop intended to improve the quality of legal scholarship in the area of privacy. Participants submit works-in-progress for workshop discussions led by commenters on the papers.
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/bclt/bcltevents/2020-privacy-law-scholars-conference/
Digitising Early Childhood
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June 2021
Milan, Italy
Contemporary children and their parents are inventing what it is to have a digital childhood, and in doing so are introducing families, schools and policy makers to new ways of thinking, doing and being. This conference discusses and expands research trajectories through these uncertainties and aims to build bridges across the different disciplines and strands of research in this area. It will forge a new way forward and consolidate the base of what we already know, revealing what we have yet to investigate and address, and what important insights are emerging that must be taken seriously.
http://www.digitisingearlychildhood.com/2020-conference.html
CPDP LatAm 2021
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Postponed from June 23-25, 2020
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The first Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection Latin America will be held in conjunction with the first Latin American Privacy Law Scholars conference and MyData's first Latin American meeting. The theme will be "Data Protection in Latin America: Democracy, Innovation, and Regulation". The organizers hope it will be a unique opportunity to bring together varied and complementary perspectives on data protection and its impact on democracy, innovation, and regulation in Latin America.
https://cpdp.lat/en/
DEF CON 29
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August 5-8, 2021
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Def Con is one of the oldest and best-attended hacker conferences. Each year it attracts thousands of professional and amateur security researchers.
https://www.defcon.org
Singularity University Global Summit 2021
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August 23-25, 2021
Los Angeles, California, USA
Global Summit 2021
Singularity University's premier annual gathering brings together 2,000 changemakers for talks on AI, augmented/virtual relity, blockchain, the future of work, impact, investing, robotics and more.
https://su.org/summits/su-global-summit/
World Library and Information Congress 2021
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August 2021
Rotterdam, Netherlands
WLIC is the annual conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).
https://2020.ifla.org/
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