Efforts at the federal level to pass laws like SOPA and CISPA and require that tech companies build backdoors into their services for law enforcement use have attacted widespread attention and criticism, and rightly so. But DC is far from the only place that officials are making decisions that impact the privacy and free speech rights of tech users. State and local officials are jumping into the fray as well, passing laws or creating policies that have immediate impact without the spotlight that accompanies federal action.
In this talk, I will survey several areas where state and local officials have recently been active, including warrantless location tracking, searches of student and employee devices and online accounts, automated license plate recognition, and DNA collection. I will highlight some of the best and worst policies coming from state and local officials. Most of all, I hope to convince you that keeping an eye on -- and even taking time to educate -- your local sheriff or state legislature may be just as important as protecting your freedoms at the national level.
Chris Conley is the Technology and Civil Liberties Policy Attorney at the ACLU of Northern California, where his mission is to ensure that emerging technology bolsters rather than erodes individual privacy and free speech rights. He takes a multidisciplinary approach to protecting civil liberties, from building apps and other tools that help users better understand and control the flow of their personal information to working on resources that help businesses build privacy and free speech protections into new products and services. He has particularly focused on the role that privacy companies can play in protecting the freedoms of their users. Prior to joining the ACLU of Northern California, Chris was a Fellow with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, where he led research efforts on international Internet surveillance. He previously worked as a software engineer and data architect for various corporations and non-profits. Chris holds a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering from The University of Michigan, a S.M. in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a J.D. from Harvard Law. Twitter: @ManConley Facebook:aclunc