KEYNOTE 2: Jennifer Granick (Attorney, ZwillGen PLLC)

Presentation Title Privacy, Secrecy, Freedom and Power
Presentation Abstract

Technological advances have both diminished and enhanced the ability to keep information private, but on balance have challenged privacy more than strengthened it. As a result, the law has been under pressure to play an increasing role in protecting secrecy, whether in class action lawsuits or national security prosecutions. But the law is a dull tool, so we are living through a kind of information anarchy now where transgressions are both rampant and over-punished.

The exhilaration of lawlessness seen in groups like Anonymous, LulzSec and the #AntiSec Movement are giving way to potentially authoritarian crackdowns, which themselves are both dangerous and lawless. This talk tracks these trends and asks what role hackers and other activists should play in the privacy/security/transparency debate.

About Jennifer Granick

Jennifer Granick is an attorney at ZwillGen PLLC. Prior to joining ZwillGen in 2010, she held the position of Civil Liberties Director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation from 2007-2010. Prior to that, she served as the Executive Director of the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School where she was a lecturer in law.

She also founded and directed the Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic where she supervised students in working on some of the most important cyberlaw cases that took place during her tenure. She is best known for her work with Intellectual Property law, free speech, privacy, and other things relating to computer security, and has represented several high profile hackers.