Newsletter #44: Contact

Newsletter #44: sent!
(and archived if you missed it)

Doing: I joined the Access Now Digital Security Helpline as the Team’s Education Coordinator, co-organized a workshop at the Harvard Kennedy School and published a report about it, and have been awarded a research fellowship by the Digital Civil Society Lab at Stanford University.

Linking to: virology, contact tracing, chats and censorship, phone calls, door handles; Tara Betts, June Jordan, Gian Maria Volonté, Peggy Gou.

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Joining the 2020 cohort of Stanford University’s Digital Civil Society Lab Fellows

I am honored to have been awarded a research fellowship by the Digital Civil Society Lab at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society.

The Digital Civil Society Lab is a research initiative at Stanford University investigating the challenges and opportunities for civil society to thrive in the digital age. Launched in 2017, the fellowship program provides social sector leaders with the time, space, expertise and resources to help turn ideas and prototypes into action. Fellows undertake yearlong projects to advance the safe, ethical and effective use of digital resources in civil society.

You can read more about the Digital Civil Society Lab and this year’s stellar cohort of fellows here.

Workshop & Report: Future Paths to a Public Interest Internet Infrastructure

The governance of the Internet infrastructure is collectively enacted by the design of technology, the policies of companies, the administrative functions of global standard-setting organizations, national laws and international agreements.

A critical component of this infrastructure are Internet standards, which can affect fundamental rights such as privacy, security, anonymity, freedom of expression and information. Decision-making about the Internet infrastructure is a matter of social policy. To advance the protection of human rights online, there is an urgent need for civil society to get further involved in technical discussions, and for the broader public interest technology ecosystem to develop long term strategies to strengthen the impact of advocacy efforts.

Continue reading Workshop & Report: Future Paths to a Public Interest Internet Infrastructure

News! Joining the Access Now Digital Security Helpline as Education Coordinator

I am honored and proud to announce that I have joined the Access Now Digital Security Helpline as the the Team’s Education Coordinator.

Access Now is an international organization seeking to defend and extend the digital rights of users at risk around the world. The Access Now Digital Security Helpline is a free-of-charge resource, offering real-time, 24/7 direct technical assistance and advice to civil society groups, activists, media organizations, journalists, bloggers, and human rights defenders worldwide.

As the Helpline Education Coordinator, I manage the development and improvement of educational efforts by the Helpline Team in support of our beneficiaries, design capacity building opportunities for help desk members, and build relationships with key partners and international communities of information security practitioners and safety trainers.

Learn more about the services and resources offered by the Helpline and how to contact us here.

Newsletter #43: Disorder

Newsletter #43: sent!
(and archived if you missed it)

Linking to: Amazon-powered police; isolating social care robots; immigration and internment; SIM cards; an alternate history of sexuality in club culture; butch Queer Eye; Chaédria LaBouvier, Sharmaine Lovegrove, Toni Morrison.

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What is at stake for human rights in the design of Internet protocols?

This article was originally published on the Kennedy School Review on May 13, 2019.

Sudanese Americans rally outside the White House in Washington, Saturday, June 8, 2019, in solidarity with Pro-democracy protests in Sudan. Image Credit: AP. From: Sudan protesters try to rekindle movement. Grapple with power outage, blocked internet and heightened security – Gulf News.

Over the last decade, political and legislative bodies have started to codify the relationship between the Internet and human rights. In 2012, the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the United Nations adopted a resolution to protect the free speech of individuals on the Internet–the first UN resolution of its kind. In 2014, a UN General Assembly resolution called on states to “respect and protect the right to privacy” in the digital age. These efforts have mostly focused on safeguarding human rights online from a legal and regulatory perspective. However, they did not consider how the development and governance of the Internet infrastructure can affect the rights of Internet users.

A critical component of this infrastructure are Internet protocols, which define the rules and conventions for communication between networks. By enabling and controlling the exchange of information at a global scale, protocols have the potential for far-reaching economic and social consequences.

This article will provide an introduction to Internet protocols, explain how their design can affect the rights of global users, and describe possible paths to a human rights enabling approach for developing and maintaining the Internet infrastructure.

Continue reading What is at stake for human rights in the design of Internet protocols?

Newsletter #42: Keep up

Newsletter #42: sent!
(and archived if you missed it)

Doing: I published a report with Aspiration looking at the challenges and opportunities encountered by information security practitioners supporting human rights organizations; dived into my Research Fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School and learned a lot from sharing thoughts with folks from the Berkman Klein Center’ Ethical Tech Working Group and MIT; co-authored a Human Rights Review of the QUIC protocol; and I wrote an article published by the Kennedy School Review on what is at stake for human rights in the design of Internet protocols.

Linking to: how mass surveillance works in Xinjiang, China; how to repair cracks and corrupted code in our cities; custom-built VPNs against data-extracting companies; queerness and cyborgs; Katie Bouman, Nadiya Hussain, Judith Kerr and her cat Katinka.

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Newsletter #41: Traffic

Newsletter #41: sent!
(and archived if you missed it)

Doing: I have been invited to become a digital HKS Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, went to my first Internet Engineering Task Force meeting, joined the work of the Human Rights Protocol Considerations Research Group (and we got badges!), and learned about computer networking and cognitive capitalism at a Critical Engineering workshop.

Linking to: Capitalism-enabling software; racist face recognition; community plumbing; archiving while Black; women driving environmental activism in Appalachia; Storme DeLarverie, Tommy Pico, Sylvester, Cheryl Dunye.

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Becoming a digital HKS Harvard Kennedy School Research Fellow

I am honored to have been invited to become a digital HKS Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.

digital HKS is an initiative committed to exploring the relationship between technology, data, and the public interest. It creates a space to research how to design, build, and engage with digital technologies as they relate to civic participation, equity, governance, and accountability.

You can read more about digital HKS on its website and on Twitter @hks_digital.