Working Together To Make the Entire Internet More Secure
I must admit, when I mentioned to friends recently that I was going to the XBiz conference for work, they were surprised and asked me what exactly it is I do at work anyway. The answer is simple; I work for a digital rights advocacy organization that is committed to helping secure the entire internet. The adult entertainment industry represents a big swath of traffic on the internet and web, so if we at CDT don’t work with them, we aren’t really living our mission and a vast quantity of traffic remains insecure.
Eric Paul Leue of the Free Speech Coalition moderated the panel, which also featured Selena Deckelmann of Mozilla, Zack Tollman of Wired, and Shirley Lara of Chaturbate. We made our case for why HTTPS was essential for protecting the privacy of their customers and shared the tangible business benefits beyond that, such as faster delivery speed and access to new web tools. Zack also discussed Wired’s ups and downs in making the move to HTTPS. Shirley summed it all up when she said her team told her “all security is a joke unless you have HTTPS.”
Brian, Selena, and Eric at the XBiz conference.
The funny thing about the panel and the conversation that followed was that it really could have happened at any business or industry conference. The people in the room cared about their customers, wanted to maximize their digital experience, and wanted to be on the leading edge of technology. Based on the response, it looks like a number of the major adult sites are going to take CDT, Mozilla, and Wired up on our offer to help make the move to HTTPS. Awesome.
If you’re a site operator that wants to make the move to HTTPS, get in touch. And if you want more information about why all websites need to be using HTTPS, check out our one-pager.
Hopefully we have more great collaborations on moving the entire internet to HTTPS to come – thanks to the Free Speech Coalition for having us and making this an industry priority.
Coalition Urges Senate Not to Let Companies Waive Financial Regulations for AI
CDT joined AI Now Institute, American Civil Liberties Union, and several organizations dedicated to tech policy, consumer protection, and civil rights in a letter to Senate leadership and the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee opposing the “AI Innovation Labs” language in Sec. 10509 of the CLARITY Act.
CDT-led Coalition Calls for Transparency for White House AI Framework
CDT and Americans for Responsible Innovation led a broad, bipartisan coalition of over two dozen civil society groups in calling on the White House to release its Framework for review of frontier AI models.
CDT Amicus Brief Calls on Fourth Circuit to Rein In Geofence Warrants
Earlier this year the Supreme Court ruled in Chatrie v United States that the Fourth Amendment protected all cell phone location information, which CDT lauded as a landmark decision, but sent the case back down to the Fourth Circuit to assess the propriety of the geofence warrant at issue.
CDT and Partners Post Floor Alert Opposing CA SB 1013 Automated License Plate Readers Bill
The best way to ensure that Automated License Plate Readers are not abused is to limit the retention of stored data and to keep loopholes to lawful process closed. CA SB 1013 is a step in the wrong direction, and we urge the California legislature to reject this approach.
