The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has officially brought back its critically acclaimed podcast, How to Fix the Internet, for a sixth season. With a reputation for tackling some of the most pressing issues in tech, privacy, and digital autonomy, the new season promises thought-provoking conversations and in-depth analysis on the intersection of technology and human rights.
Season 6: A New Chapter in the Fight for Digital Autonomy
How to Fix the Internet has consistently provided its audience with a platform for exploring and understanding how digital technologies shape our world. The new season kicks off with a powerful episode featuring Kate Bertash, the Director of the Digital Defense Fund (DDF), an organization created to address the growing need for security and technological resources in the fight for bodily autonomy, particularly in the context of abortion rights.
The theme of this season is clear: digital autonomy is just as crucial as bodily autonomy, and it’s time we start treating them as inseparable concepts. In the opening episode, Bertash discusses how both realms are deeply interconnected and how we can reclaim control over our online lives just as we strive to protect our personal freedoms in the real world.
The Digital Landscape: We All Leave Trails
As we move through the online world, we leave behind digital trails – from search history to the products we purchase, the websites we visit, and even the places we go. All of these traces are tracked and often controlled by large corporations behind the platforms we use daily. But what if we shifted the narrative? What if digital autonomy were given the same value as our physical autonomy?
Bertash argues that the time has come to reclaim our digital freedoms, allowing us to move, read, create, and express ourselves online just as freely as we would in the physical world. For Bertash, achieving this goal means ensuring that privacy and security become central to the digital experience, not just for activists, but for everyone.
Kate Bertash: Advocate for Digital and Bodily Autonomy
Kate Bertash has spent years advocating for digital privacy, security, and the protection of bodily autonomy. Her work with the Digital Defense Fund, which was founded in 2017, focuses on providing security support and resources for those in the abortion rights and pro-democracy movements. This includes offering digital security evaluations, conducting staff training, and even creating software that helps protect reproductive justice organizations and activists from digital threats.
Bertash’s work also extends to educating abortion providers and activists on how to protect themselves from online surveillance, and she has built an impressive network of engineers, designers, and volunteers to ensure the protection of bodily autonomy in the digital age.
Fighting Surveillance: Adversarial Fashion and Anti-Surveillance Activism
One of Bertash’s most unique contributions to the fight against surveillance is her creation of Adversarial Fashion – a line of clothing designed to thwart license plate reader systems. These garments disrupt automated surveillance systems by introducing “junk data” into the systems used to track and monitor individuals’ movements. It’s a bold approach to an issue that many of us take for granted: the constant surveillance of our every move.
In her conversation with EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn and Activism Director Jason Kelley, Bertash emphasized the importance of local communities taking ownership of the digital landscape. According to Bertash, it’s vital for communities to come together to discuss and decide how much surveillance they’re willing to tolerate, if any.
The conversation touched on the blurred lines between public and private spaces in the digital age, exploring how this shift has created new challenges in safeguarding our privacy. Bertash also discussed how technologies like surveillance cameras and automated license plate readers have become commonplace, posing significant threats to civil liberties.
A Tinkered Internet: DefCon and Reclaiming Technology
The How to Fix the Internet podcast also delves into the notion that we don’t have to passively accept technology as it is given to us. This is where the DefCon hacker conference comes into play. As America’s largest hacker gathering, DefCon represents the spirit of innovation, creativity, and rebellion against oppressive technology. According to Bertash, events like these demonstrate that it’s possible to break, tinker with, and rebuild technology to serve our needs rather than simply accepting the status quo.
Community-Driven Tech for the People
One of the overarching themes of the new season is the idea that community-driven tech can lead to real, impactful change. By working together to create technology that prioritizes privacy, security, and individual freedoms, we can move beyond the current sense of digital hopelessness and instead build solutions that benefit everyone.
Bertash’s work highlights how grassroots movements and local collaboration can be the driving forces behind the creation of technologies that protect personal freedoms and ensure that privacy remains a fundamental right.
What’s Coming Up on the Podcast
The first episode of How to Fix the Internet season six is just the beginning. The season will feature a range of exciting and thought-provoking guests, including:
- Molly White, a crypto and tech critic, who will discuss how Neopets and Wikipedia shaped her approach to technology and digital spaces.
- Isa Fernandes, the Executive Director of the Tor Project, who will explore the power of free, open-source software in preserving internet freedom.
- Harlo Holmes, a representative from the Freedom of the Press Foundation, who will tackle the growing problem of digital privacy nihilism.
These conversations promise to deepen our understanding of the role technology plays in our lives and how we can better navigate an increasingly digital world.
Listen to How to Fix the Internet
The How to Fix the Internet podcast is available on major platforms like Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can listen to the full episodes and dive deeper into the topics that matter most in the fight for digital and bodily autonomy.
Key Takeaways:
- Digital Autonomy and Bodily Autonomy: Kate Bertash advocates for treating digital autonomy as equally important as bodily autonomy.
- Digital Defense Fund: A key organization in protecting abortion rights and bodily autonomy through digital security measures.
- Adversarial Fashion: Clothing designed to thwart surveillance systems and protect individual privacy.
- Tech Activism and DefCon: The hacker community’s role in challenging surveillance and reclaiming technology.
- Upcoming Guests: Expect engaging conversations with experts on crypto, open-source software, and digital privacy.
