[e-privacy] [EVENT, CFP] Computers, Freedom and Security 2007 - "Autonomy: Fencing in Freedoms on the Electronic Frontier"

[Andrea Glorioso]

FYI

Gli organizzatori mi dicono  che vorrebbero vedere una  forte presenza
europea, quindi mandate proposte!

+++

http://www.cfp2007.org/live/

Seventeenth  Conference on  Computers, Freedom, and Privacy   (CFP2007)
Montreal, May 1-4 2007

The deadline for proposals is
January 20, 2006

The  Program Committee  of the  Seventeenth  Conference on  Computers,
Freedom, and Privacy   (CFP2007) seeks your  proposals for  innovative
conference sessions and speakers.

+++  Autonomy: Fencing in Freedoms on the Electronic Frontier +++

When the Computers, Freedom  and Privacy  conference first started  in
1991 in San Francisco, its raison d’etre was to provide a forum where
regulators and government officials,   not themselves denizens of  the
new  electronic frontier, could start to   understand the Internet and
engage  in   dialogue with   the growing  Internet-savvy  sub-culture.
Tensions were running    high,  as hackers,     cyber-libertarians and
technology developers  revelled in the new power  of the  networks and
expanding    computing capacity.   Suddenly    there  was   a  growing
availability of cryptographic tools, formerly in the exclusive control
of government.  Governments  and  business  itself  were  increasingly
uneasy, fearing the explosion of  cybercrime, while media were  hyping
internet pornography  and  online gambling.  Times were  exciting, and
the dialogue was intense and at times raucous.

The Net has  continued to explode, faster than  many of us  could have
imagined.  The technology works, and lots of people have made a lot of
money.  A whole new generation has  grown up, expecting to communicate
instantly to   a huge circle of  friends  and connections   around the
world.  Life without computers and cell-phones is unthinkable to today’
s North American  teenagers.  At the  World Summit  on the Information
Society   held    under   the      auspices   of   the   International
Telecommunications  Union  in Geneva  in  December 2003  and  in Tunis
November 2005, some  NGOs called  for the  right to communicate  to be
added to the  UN Declaration of Human  Rights.  Clearly, computing and
communicating  have  empowered  the  individual  and  enabled  her  to
participate in the global community.

This explosion of computing power is entering  a new phase, as we move
to  a  world   of  ubiquitous  computing  and   nanotechnology.  Radio
Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is rolling out, promising a
world where virtually  every item of  goods we possess,  from a can of
soda   to    a car   licence   plate,    will  be   communicating with
transmitter-receivers embedded  everywhere, from  doorways to roadways
to   point-of-sale terminals.   The   next   version of the   Internet
architecture,  Internet Protocol  Version 6  or   IPV6, will permit  a
unique IP address  for every 40 thousand  molecules on the face of the
earth, up to  a kilometer up.   Hands up, anyone who understands  what
this will do  to humanity and  our understanding  of how  our world is
going to function.  Is this going to bring further empowerment, or has
the tide turned?

The need for discussion is more urgent now than ever.

Everyone working in the field of public  education, from librarians to
teachers  to consumer  activists  and  civil libertarians, understands
that we are hitting a wall with respect  to helping the average person
deal  with  the complexity of  modern  life.  From finance to cellular
phone packages, reading food   labels to making decisions  about  your
children’s  education, life is infinitely more  complex than it was a
generation ago.  Dealing with pollution, global  warming, holes in the
ozone,  contaminants  in   water, investments,  pensions,  health care
choices…consumers are worn  out   and reaching the breaking    point.
Small wonder it has  been difficult to get  the public worked up about
incursions into free speech, civil  liberties, and privacy.  They  are
busy reading labels looking for transfats.

It is time for another major discussion to  take place.  We are moving
to  a world of ubiquitous  surveillance, faster than anyone could have
imagined.  More  ominously,  the  computers that  take charge  of  the
world, aptly foretold in  Arthur C. Clarke’s  2001: A  Space Odyssey,
are here.  Meet  Hal, your  new cell phone,  that will  decide when it
will turn itself  on  and  on off,  and    when it will  report   your
geographical   location  to the  authorities.    Meet   Hal, your  new
refrigerator that reorders the food  as it expires…or not,  depending
on what  your health  care provider  stipulates.  Meet  Hal, the robot
that is looking  after your mother  in her assisted living  apartment,
nagging her to take her pills, monitoring her blood sugar, her caloric
intake,  and  her mood  swings.  Meet  Hal,  the resource manager that
operates on behalf   of your utility  company  to  ensure you  do  not
over-consume.   Meet Hal, the friendly update   manager who takes over
your computer to make sure you have  the latest anti-virus protection,
the latest digital rights management  software  to ensure you only  do
what you are allowed to do with the music you buy.

Who  is in control    of this new  world?   Are  the hackers  and  the
uber-geeks the only ones who can still tell their own laptop computers
what to do, or  disable  the devices  that  will soon be  managing our
lives?  Can the average individual control the objects in their lives,
objects which we  in this consumer  society are increasingly dependent
on,  or  will they be   run  remotely by  distant owners,  regulators,
government officials, or private sector operators cooperating with any
of the above?

Since  the   events of  September  11  2001,    citizens in  developed
countries, especially  North Americans, have  been asked to give  up a
little privacy,  a little  liberty, in  the interests of  safety.  The
global war on terror has been the excuse  to increase state control of
financial information,      geo-positioning    information, access  to
telecommunications information, mandatory data retention, expansion of
video-surveillance, increased   authentication and identification, and
passenger  screening.  Public  information  is being removed  from the
Internet  and    from  public circulation  under    40   year old FOIA
legislation (25 years old in Canada).  Because this is a GLOBAL war on
terror, the agreements made  among consenting countries to share  data
and  cooperate with  one another with  respect  to enforcement further
preclude sharing the information with the citizens of those countries.
Never   before  has there  been   so much  public  policy  made at the
international level by career public officials, rather than by elected
officials, members of  Congress and Parliamentarians around the world.
How can democracies  survive these  kinds of transnational  agreements
that provide for surveillance of their own citizens?  Can a democratic
state exercise autonomy in this environment?

Come to CFP2007 in Montreal, May 1-4 2007.  There’s a lot at stake.

--
      Andrea Glorioso || http://people.digitalpolicy.it/sama/cv/
          M: +39 348 921 4379	     F: +39 051 930 31 133
       "Truth is a relationship between a theory and the world;
       beauty is a relationship between a theory and the mind."
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