2018 Cato Institute Surveillance Conference

The legendary spymaster James Jesus Angleton called the world of intelligence a “wilderness of mirrors,” and rarely has that description seemed as apt as it does in 2018. President Donald Trump rails against a “deep state” embedded within the very intelligence agencies over which he now presides—even as former intelligence leaders claim that it’s Trump who has sought to politicize intelligence. In U.S. v. Carpenter, the Supreme Court handed down a seminal Fourth Amendment ruling that could dramatically reshape electronic privacy law—but what it will mean in practice remains radically uncertain. Meanwhile, technology companies ranging from social media platforms to manufacturers of the connected devices that constitute the “Internet of Things” have struggled with how to balance users’ privacy against their own business interests and the surveillance demands of governments around the world.

Join the Cato Institute—and an array of top experts, technologists, and policymakers—for a probing examination of these issues and many more as we seek to navigate the wilderness.

December 14, 2018
9:00AM to 5:30PM EST
Hayek Auditorium, Cato Institute

 

1:30 – 2:45PM PANOPTICON OF THINGS: NETWORKED APPLIANCES AS SURVEILLANCE DEVICES

• Andrew Ferguson, University of the District of Columbia
• Hannah Quay-de la Vallee, Center for Democracy and Technology
• Heather West, Mozilla
• Matthew Feeney, Moderator, Cato Institute