Title: Librarians at the forefront in the fight for privacy: Lessons from the Library Freedom Project
The future is here, and it's not pretty. Facebook knows more about us than we know about ourselves, and they're facing endless scandals about how they've misused that data. Digital DNA testing companies get breached, "smart" devices accidentally record private conversations, bounty hunters buy location information direct from internet providers, and government surveillance is just as pervasive as when Edward Snowden tried to warn us all about back in 2013. Does our right to privacy exist anymore in this cyberpunk dystopia? And who can help us protect it? Librarians can. With a longstanding ethical commitment to privacy and a welcoming and trusted environment, these defenders of intellectual freedom are fighting back against the normalization of surveillance with the help of Library Freedom Project. Library Freedom Project brings together the expertise of librarians, hackers, attorneys, policy wonks, and activists to create practical privacy trainings for librarians so that they can defend the privacy of their patrons. Alison Macrina, director of LFP, will talk about how to fight surveillance and make privacy tools mainstream and ubiquitous through the trusted space of the library.