Human Rights in the Age of Hyper-Surveillance

Thursday, February 12, 2015
4:15 PM - 5:30 PM
(Pacific)

****NOTE LOCATION****

School of Education

Room 128

Speaker: 
  • Enrique Piracés

 

enrique piraces 1 370x410 Enrique Piracés

 

 

 

Abstract

For decades, security experts, privacy advocates, and whistleblowers have warned us about the growing surveillance capacity of states, the risk of technology in the hands of organized crime, and the increasing role that corporations play in violating citizens’ rights to privacy and anonymity.  As we start to grasp the scope and scale of unchecked surveillance, it is important to underscore the need to understand its potential long-term consequences for human rights organizations and the development of free media. Human rights defenders and journalists work in environments where resources are scarce and adversaries have the upper hand. In the context of human rights documentation and journalistic work, the implications of technically advanced surveillance can be tremendous.

Speaker Bio

Enrique Piracés is Vice President of the Human Rights Program at Benetech. He has been working at the intersection of human rights, science, and technological innovation for more than 10 years. His focus has been both the implications of the use of technology in the context of human rights as well as the opportunities that new scientific and technological developments open for NGOs and practitioners. He is an advocate for the use of open source and strong crypto as the baseline for human rights documentation and journalistic work.