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Speaker’s Showcase: 6 Q&A with Hernâni Marques

  • April 16, 2018
  • Comment: 0
  • Privacy

Hernâni Marques is another honorable guest of ours and one of the biggest supporters of #LibertyBits2018 from the very beginning. With his valuable help we are proud to stand strong with a remarkable #privacy speakers’ block.

Privacy advocate, computational linguist, sociologist and neuroinformatician, board member and activist of the Chaos Computer Club Switzerland (CCC-CH) and council member of the p≡p foundation, helping in creating tools to restore privacy and engaged in fights for privacy, freedom of speech and information. The list of his activities is long and impressive.

In his presentation Hernâni will raise awareness of the fact that “our Internet infrastructure is clearly under attack and fundamental technical counter-measures are utterly necessary”. He will talk about global mass surveillance which according to him is embedded into a private-public partnership with firms collecting everyone’s personal data.

Before we continue with the interview, we would like to pay special tribute to our friends from the p≡p foundation for their financial support. Thank you very much, guys!

So, Hernani, tell us a bit about yourself, please!

I’m activist of the Swiss hacker organization Chaos Computer Club Switzerland (CCC-CH) and council member of the pretty Easy privacy Foundation (pEp). In both contexts, either politically or technically, I’m engaged in fights for privacy, freedom of speech and information.

WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO JOIN THE SPEAKERS’ LIST OF LIBERTYBITS CONFERENCE?

I got an invitation from the organizers: when I saw it’s in Sofia, where I never was before, I turned very interested and applied positively. I like to see such events to happen all over Europe.

WHAT IS YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF “LIBERTY” (FREEDOM) AND WHAT ARE THE MOST UNDERESTIMATED THREATS TO OUR MODERN SOCIETY?

Citizens should be free to carry out their activities: totalitarian control from either companies or the state must be stopped. We’re seeing totalitarian instruments in the digital sphere being used all over the world. Of course, this is affecting our overall lives as online life nowadays is actual life.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO EVERYONE WHO THINKS THAT KEEPING PRIVACY IS IRRELEVANT FOR THEM BECAUSE THEY HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE?

They should, in the first place, release all their passwords, PIN codes, communication handles and emails, income and tax statements and, if that’s still not not problematic, they should also live stream their homes without any limitation. They would soon see what will happen.

WHAT IS THE EASIEST WAY TO PROTECT OUR PRIVACY IF WE ARE NOT SO TECH-SAVVY PEOPLE?

The most important thing is consciousness about what’s happening and why we shouldn’t post everything online. Technically, all means provided by the system should be used (e.g., to use a long passphrase for the login and to engage in full-disk encryption). For surfing, several add-ons should be installed to protect against malware (e.g., malvertising through ads).

WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR THE CONFERENCE?

I hope to learn to know very interesting people with which I can work to stop the totalitarian developments we’re experiencing and enforce our constitutional rights by all technical and political means.

Again, special thanks for your great support, Hernani! We are really lucky to have a friend and partner like you. #LibertyBits2018 is expecting you next Tuesday, 24th April 2018, at Sofia Tech Park.


Take the chance and reserve your seat A.S.A.P. for the second edition of LibertyBits Conference here:

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