Apathy and Arsenic: a Victorian Era lesson on fighting the surveillance state

Presented at Kiwicon 2038AD: The Dystopic Future is Now (2018), Nov. 16, 2018, 11 a.m. (30 minutes).

What does expensive Victorian era wallpaper have in common with a Cambridge Analytica Facebook quiz?

Why is the GDPR like a trip to a seaside resort?

How could a cryptoparty have anything to do with a rare book in a library in Michigan?

attacus - historian, privacy advocate, and penetration tester - walks you through a two hundred year old method for fighting the surveillance state, based on the advocacy led by 19th century scientists to abolish the domestic use of arsenic. You will learn about the tireless efforts used by anti-arsenic activists to change the public perception of arsenic, Cory Doctorow's theory of Peak Indifference, the lives ruined by data breaches, and how to sustain the recent public shift from ""I have nothing to hide"" to ""I value my privacy"".

This session will offer suggestions for developers and other interested folks on how to gather data ethically, how to behave when a data breach occurs, and how to help everyday people have more power over their own information.

Come along and enjoy a plate of biscuits while you take in stories of murder, mismanagement, and mendacity, and learn how to keep up the fight against mass surveillance now that the tide is turning.


Presenters:

  • attacus
    The deposed monarchs of Neverwas had a nearly foolproof plan for regaining their thrones: present a child whom not even the most fanatical anarcho-syndicalist could deny looked absolutely rockin' in a tiara. While they achieved this goal, attacus quests after knowledge rather than the crown. Since she became a pentester she has accepted that she will never be able to find the Grail. In spite of this, attacus continues to seek after strange and hermeutic secrets. She knows more about historical assholes than Hieronymous Bosch.

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