Upcoming Events: NymRights: Protecting Identity in the Digital Age (9/30); The Evolution of Internet Governance (10/2)

NymRights: Protecting Identity in the Digital Age

Tuesday, September 30, 12:30pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Floor. This event will be webcast live.

Do you have a name? More than one? Does it matter to you who knows it? As digital systems become more integrated into our lives, these questions are becoming very important. We're in the midst of a literal identity crisis where your identity is quickly becoming, rather than something you define, a social construct that is granted to you. This talk will explore the philosophy of names and identity, the digital systems we've created over the past decades, and the challenges that arise when the systems come into conflict with individual safety and freedom. We'll take a look at the current state of name-related policy within both companies and government, and introduce ongoing efforts to make sure your identity is not just a number in a computer.

After being suspended twice by Google Plus during the nymrights fiasco of 2011, aestetix helped created NymRights, focused on empowerment and education of digital identity. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

The Evolution of the Internet Governance Ecosystem

Thursday, October 2, Network of Centers Event in Turin, Italy. This event will be webcast live.

On October 2, 2014 the Global Network of Interdisciplinary Internet & Society Research Centers will host an academic symposium on “The Evolution of the Internet Governance Ecosystem” as part of an ongoing Network of Centers (NoC) events series on the future of Internet governance. The event will mark an important milestone in the NoC’s globally coordinated research effort aimed at examining existing and potential models of decentralized and collaborative governance with the goal of informing the evolution of - and current debate around - the Internet governance ecosystem in light of the NETmundial Roadmap and the work of various forums, panels, and committees.

The public conference is being held to discuss both research in progress and, more broadly, the role of academia in the debate about the next generation Internet governance ecosystem. We will present findings from case studies, discuss the overarching themes, and identify directions for future research.

The symposium will serve as the conclusion of the first phase of a global, collaborative Internet governance research effort within the NoC and is also intended as an initial contribution to the NETmundial Initiative -- a partnership between the World Economic Forum, ICANN, and key governmental, industry, academic, and civil society stakeholders. In addition, the event marks the two-year anniversary of NoC’s operation. At this point, in accordance with the foundational principles, the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) hands over the administrative leadership of the Network to the Nexa Center for Internet & Society.

Please register here: https://noc2014.eventbrite.com Registration (for in-person attendance) Required. more information on our website>

The Great Firewall Inverts

Tuesday, October 7, 12:30pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Floor. This event will be webcast live.

In the last few years, usage of the mobile messaging app WeChat (?? Weixin), has skyrocketed not only inside China, but outside, as well. For mainland China, Wechat is one of the only options available, due to frequent blockage of apps like Viber, Line, Twitter and Facebook. However, outside of China, fueled by a massive marketing campaign and the promise of "free calls and texts", overseas Chinese students and family, Tibetan exiles, and Bollywood celebrities also use the app as their primary mobile communications service. It is this phenomenon that might be called an inversion of the Great Firewall. Instead of Chinese users scaling the wall to get out, people around the world are walking up to the front gate, and asking to be let in.

Combined with the rise of attractive, low-cost mobile handsets from Huawei and Xiaomi that include China-based cloud services, being sold in India and elsewhere, the world is witnessing a massive expansion of Chinese telecommunications reach and influence, powered entirely by users choosing to participate in it. Due to these systems being built upon proprietary protocols and software, their inner workings are largely opaque and mostly insecure. Like most social media apps, the WeChat app has full permission to activate microphones and cameras, track GPS, access user contacts and photos, and copy all of this data at any time to their servers. Recently, it was discovered that Xiaomi MIUI phones sent all text messages through the companies cloud servers in China, without asking the user (Though, once this gained broad coverage in the news, the feature was turned off by default).

The fundamental question is do the Chinese companies behind these services have any market incentive or legal obligation to protect the privacy of their non-Chinese global userbase? Do they willingly or automatically turn over all data to the Ministry of Public Security or State Internet Information Office? Will we soon see foreign users targeted or prosecuted due to "private" data shared on WeChat? Finally, from the Glass Houses Department, is there any fundamental diffence in the impact on privacy freedom for an American citizen using WeChat versus a Chinese citizen using WhatsApp or Google?

Nathan Freitas leads the Guardian Project, an open-source mobile security software project, and directs technology strategy and training at the Tibet Action Institute. His work at the Berkman Center focuses on tracking the legality and prosecution risks for mobile security apps users worldwide. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

John Kaag on Drone Warfare and the Public Imagination

In 2012, U.S. drone strikes occurred most often in which nation? If you don’t know, you’re not alone. 27 percent of Americans reported they had no a clue and another 60 percent got it wrong. What should the media cover when it comes to drones and military robotics? And what responsibility do journalists have to focus in on the most pressing moral and legal questions when it comes to drone technologies? John Kaag -- Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and co-author of the recent "Drone Warfare" -- discusses how the American and international public think about drone warfare, and poses pressing ethical questions about drones in military and civilian use. video/audio on our website>