Alexis Hancock
Alexis Hancock is a staff technologist who helps to secure the web by working on HTTPS Everywhere. She has previously been a web developer and system administrator for seven years, and a statistician in the education realm. She has earned degrees from the Rochester Institute of Technology in media arts and technology and The New School in organizational change management. She is very passionate about encryption and tech equity for all, and has been assisting activists and educators with their tech needs for almost ten years.
Talks
Mobile First Digital Identities and Your Privacy
"Mobile First" is more than a web developer's mantra chanted from 2010. It also means that many people now visit websites and use services from their mobile devices more than on laptops and desktops. Recently, several proposals and published models for establishing big parts of our lives through our mobile devices have been discussed. Big proposals include mobile driver's licenses, mobile health credentials, and other forms of digitized documentation such as university degrees. Recently published and proposed standards include the W3C's verifiable credentials data model and the ISO's 18013-5 mobile driver's license compliance. This talk discusses the privacy concerns that surround these ideas, test cases, and the trajectory of digitized identification.
The aspirations of these technologies are utopian. However, we are in a reality that makes digital identities subject to centralized power structures. Crafting who we are online can look different if these technologies become standard in our everyday interactions, especially if these interactions include employers and health care. These scenarios affect the most vulnerable among us, the people who don't get the chance of anonymity online. Engaging in these conversations helps bring to light concerns that may not be considered, and helps to craft a better digital future.
Ask the EFF: The Year in Digital Civil Liberties
Get the latest information about how the law is racing to catch up with technological change from staffers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the nation's premiere digital civil liberties group fighting for freedom and privacy in the computer age. This session will include updates on current EFF issues such as:
Congress' EARN-IT legislation (designed to mandate backdoors in encryption);
Van Buren v. U.S., the upcoming Supreme Court case on the CFAA (federal anti-hacking law)
Law and policy for COVID-19 tracking/quarantine/immunity passport apps;
The growing trends to limit government use of facial recognition technology;
as well as updates on EFF's technology projects, cases, and legislation affecting security research, and much more. Half the session will be given over to question-and-answer, so it's your chance to ask EFF questions about the law and technology issues that are important to you.