Let’s get radical: digital privacy as a collective issue

Privacy has historically been thought of as an individual issue: the right to be let alone, to preserve personal autonomy, and an individual's ability to keep their business to themselves.

But we are starting to see a shift in the way that privacy is spoken about toward a collective concern.

In this session, we’ll get nerdy about what privacy can mean in the political unrest of the 21st century. We’ll consider how upholding privacy is about more than just me and my data, and frame it as an essential way to examine and redistribute power, as a form of community care, as political resistance to surveillance capitalism and extractive practices of governments, and as a tool for harm reduction.

This session is a call to action for attendees to embolden their commitment to privacy as a human right.

Samantha Floreani she/her

Sam works at the intersection of feminism, human rights and technology. She is currently Program Lead for Digital Rights Watch, and a Privacy and Technology Specialist with Salinger Privacy.

With experience across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, and a background in both politics and data science, Sam thinks an interdisciplinary approach to privacy is vital. As former Program Director for Code Like a Girl, Sam is dedicated to ethics of technology in all its forms—from gender equity in the tech industry to upholding privacy in an increasingly surveillance-obsessed world.