In episode #44 of “Tech Policy Weekly,” Berin Szoka and Adam Thierer engage in a debate with Internet security expert Chris Soghoian, who is a student fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. He is also a Ph.D. candidate at Indiana University’s School of Informatics.
Chris is an up-and-coming star in the field of cyberlaw and technology policy as he has quickly made a name for himself in debates over privacy policy, data security, and government surveillance. He straddles the line between academic and activist, and the role he often plays in many tech policy debates is somewhat akin to what Ralph Nader has done in many other fields through the years. Except, in this case, instead of “Unsafe at Any Speed” it’s more like “Unsafe at Any Setting,” since Chris is often raising a stink about what he regards as unjust or unreasonable privacy or security settings that various online websites or service providers use.
On the show, Chris talks about two of his recent crusades to get certain online providers to change their default settings to improve user security or privacy: (1) His effort this week to get major email providers—and Google in particular—to change their default security settings on their email offerings; and (2) his earlier crusade to create permanent opt-out cookies to stop behavioral advertising by advertising networks.
There are several ways to listen to today’s TLF Podcast. You can press play on the player below to listen right now, or download the MP3 file. You can also subscribe to the podcast by clicking on the button for your preferred service. (And do us a favor, Digg this podcast!)
[display_podcast]
Finally, here’s some relevant links that were mentioned during today’s show:
- Chris Soghoian’s webpage + his Harvard Berkman Center page
- Chris’s blog (“Slight Paranoia”)
- Chris’s “TACO” (Targeted Advertising Cookie Opt-Out) plug-in for Firefox (and description of it on his home page)
- Chris’s “Caught in the Cloud” paper (+ a video of him presenting it at Harvard)
- The letter from 38 cybersecurity researchers that Chris sent to Google
- Berin Szoka’s response to Chris’s “Caught in the Cloud” paper
- Berin’s discussion of the issue of preserving user choice through permanent opt-out cookies
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.