How to Fix the Internet

Too many young people – particularly young people of color – lack enough familiarity or experience with emerging technologies to recognize how artificial intelligence can impact their lives, in either a harmful or an empowering way. Educator Ora Tanner saw this and rededicated her career toward promoting tech literacy and changing how we understand data sharing and surveillance, as well as teaching how AI can be both a dangerous tool and a powerful one for innovation and activism.By now her curricula have touched more than 30,000 students, many of them in her home state of Florida. Tanner also went to bat against the Florida Schools Safety Portal, a project to amass enormous amounts of data about students in an effort to predict and avert school shootings – and a proposal rife with potential biases and abuses.Tanner speaks with EFF's Cindy Cohn and Jason Kelley on teaching young people about the algorithms that surround them, and how they can make themselves heard to build a fairer, brighter tech future.In this episode you’ll learn about:Convincing policymakers that AI and other potentially invasive tech isn’t always the answer to solving public safety problems.Bringing diverse new voices into the dialogue about how AI is designed and used.Creating a culture of searching for truth rather than just accepting whatever information is put on your plate.Empowering disadvantaged communities not only through tech literacy but by teaching informed activism as well.If you have any feedback on this episode, please email podcast@eff.org. Please visit the site page at https://eff.org/pod206 where you’ll find resources – including links to important legal cases and research discussed in the podcast and a full transcript of the audio. This podcast is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology.Music for How to Fix the Internet was created for us by Reed Mathis and Nat Keefe of BeatMower. This podcast is licensed Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, and includes the following music licensed Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported by their creators: Meet Me at Phountain by gaetanh (c) copyright 2022 http://ccmixter.org/files/gaetanh/64711Hoedown at the Roundabout by gaetanh (c) copyright 2022  http://ccmixter.org/files/gaetanh/64711JPEG of a Hotdog by gaetanh (c) copyright 2022 http://ccmixter.org/files/gaetanh/64711reCreation by airtone (c) copyright 2019 http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/airtone/59721    

The joy of tinkering, making, and sharing is part of the human condition. In modern times, this creative freedom too often is stifled by secrecy as a means of monetization - from non-compete laws to quashing people’s right to repair the products they’ve already paid for.Adam Savage—the maker extraordinaire best known from the television shows MythBusters and Savage Builds—is an outspoken advocate for the right to repair, to tinker, and to put creativity and innovation to work in your own garage. He says a fear-based approach to invention, in which everyone thinks secrecy is the path to a big payday, is exhausting and counterproductive.Savage speaks with EFF's Cindy Cohn and Danny O’Brien about creating a world in which we incrementally keep building on each others’ work, keep iterating the old into new, and keep making things better through collaboration.In this episode you’ll learn about:How cosplay symbolizes what’s best about the instincts to make and shareWhy it’s better to live in the Star Trek universe than the Star Wars universeBalancing the desire for profit with wide dissemination of ideas that benefit society and cultureBuilding a movement to encourage more people to be makers - and getting the law out of the wayIf you have any feedback on this episode, please email podcast@eff.org. Please visit the site page at https://eff.org/pod205 where you’ll find resources – including links to important legal cases and research discussed in the podcast and a full transcript of the audio. This podcast is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology.Music for How to Fix the Internet was created for us by Reed Mathis and Nat Keefe of BeatMower. This podcast is licensed Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, and includes the following music licensed Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported by their creators: JPEG of a Hotdog by gaetanh http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/gaetanh/6471Tall Glass of Turnip Juice by gaetanh http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/gaetanh/6471Gone for Smokes by gaetanh http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/gaetanh/6471Declan’s Dipsy Doodle by gaetanh http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/gaetanh/6471Whose Hand is That by gaetanh http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/gaetanh/6471

Democracy means allowing everyday people to have their voices heard on public matters involving their communities. One of the goals of civic technology is to allow a more diverse group of people to have input on government affairs through the use of technology and the internet. Beth Noveck, author of Solving Public Problems and Director of the Governance Lab, chats with EFF's Cindy Cohn and Danny O'Brien about how civic technology can enhance people's relationship with the government and help improve their communities.In this episode you’ll learn about:What civic technology is and how it can be used to approach and fix public problems while enhancing the relationship between people and their government.The importance of deciding what problem you are trying to solve before working on a solution.Ways that civic technology can ensure that the government is held accountable for its actions.How we can build civic technology tools to increase inclusion, specifically for those who have been marginalized or previously left out of the conversation.Why civic technology allows for more people to get engaged in their democracy.The good and bad that can come with governments increasing their knowledge of technology.If you have any feedback on this episode, please email podcast@eff.org. Please visit the site page at https://eff.org/pod204 where you’ll find resources – including links to important legal cases and research discussed in the podcast and a full transcript of the audio. This podcast is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology.Music for How to Fix the Internet was created for us by Reed Mathis and Nat Keefe of BeatMower. This podcast is licensed Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, and includes the following music licensed Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported by their creators: http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/djlang59/37792Drops of H2O (The Filtered Water Treatment ) by J.Lang Ft: Airtonehttp://dig.ccmixter.org/files/mwic/58883Xena's Kiss / Medea's Kiss by mwic http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/AlexBeroza/59612Kalte Ohren by Alex Ft: starfrosch & Jerry Spoonhttp://dig.ccmixter.org/files/snowflake/59564rr4Come Inside by Snowflake Ft: Starfrosch, Jerry Spoon, Kara Square, spinningmerkabahttp://dig.ccmixter.org/files/zep_hurme/59681Come Inside by Zep Hurme Ft: snowflake

Today almost everything is connected to the internet - from your coffeemaker to your car to your thermostat. But the “Internet of Things” may not be hardwired for security. Window Snyder, computer security expert and author, joins EFF hosts Cindy Cohn and Danny O’Brien as they delve into the scary insecurities lurking in so many of our modern conveniences—and how we can change policies and tech to improve our security and safety.Window Snyder is the founder and CEO of Thistle Technologies. She’s the former Chief Security Officer of Square, Fastly and Mozilla, and she spent five years at Apple focusing on privacy strategy and features for OS X and iOS. Window is also the co-author of Threat Modeling, a manual for security architecture analysis in software.In this episode, Window explains why malicious hackers might be interested in getting access  to your refrigerator, doorbell, or printer. These basic household electronics can be an entry point for attackers to gain access to other sensitive devices on your network.  Some of these devices may themselves store sensitive data, like a printer or the camera in a kid’s bedroom. Unfortunately, many internet-connected devices in your home aren’t designed to be easily inspected and reviewed for inappropriate access. That means it can be hard for you to know whether they’ve been compromised.But the answer is not forswearing all connected devices. Window approaches this problem with some optimism for the future. Software companies have learned, after an onslaught of attacks, to  prioritize security. And she covers how we can bring the lessons of software security  into the world of hardware devices. In this episode, we explain:How it was the hard costs of addressing security vulnerabilities, rather than the sharp stick of regulation, that pushed many tech companies to start prioritizing cybersecurity.The particular threat of devices that are no longer being updated by the companies that originally deployed them, perhaps because that product is no longer produced, or because the company has folded or been sold.Why we should adapt our best current systems for software security, like our processes for updating browsers and operating systems, for securing newly networked devices, like doorbells and refrigerators.Why committing to a year or two of security updates isn’t good enough when it comes to consumer goods like cars and medical technology.Why it’s important for hardware creators to build devices so that they will be able to reliably update the software without “bricking” the device.The challenge of covering the cost of security updates when a user only pays once for the device – and how  bundling security updates with new features can entice users to stay updated.This podcast is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology.If you have any feedback on this episode, please email podcast@eff.org. Please visit the site page at eff.org/pod203 where you’ll find resources – including links to important legal cases and research discussed in the podcast and a full transcript of the audio. Music for How to Fix the Internet was created for us by Reed Mathis and Nat Keefe of BeatMower. This podcast is licensed Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, and includes the following music licensed Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported by their creators: http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/djlang59/37792Drops of H2O (The Filtered Water Treatment ) by J.Lang Ft: Airtonehttp://dig.ccmixter.org/files/admiralbob77/59533Warm Vacuum Tube  by Admiral Bob Ft: starfroschhttp://dig.ccmixter.org/files/mwic/58883Xena's Kiss / Medea's Kiss by mwichttp://dig.ccmixter.org/files/airtone/59721reCreation by airtone 

Like many young people, Zach Latta went to a school that didn't teach any computer classes. But that didn’t stop him from learning everything he could about them and becoming a programmer at a young age. After moving to San Francisco, Zach founded Hack Club, a nonprofit network of high school coding clubs around the world, to help other students find the education and community that he wished he had as a teenager. This week on our podcast, we talk to Zach about the importance of student access to an open internet, why learning to code can increase equity, and how school's online security and the law often stand in the way. We’ll also discuss how computer education can help create the next generation of makers and builders that we need to solve some of society’s biggest problems. In this episode, you’ll learn about:Why schools block some harmless educational content and coding resources, from common sites like Github to “view source” functions on school-issued devicesHow locked down digital systems in schools stop young people from learning about coding and computers, and create equity issues for students who are already marginalizedHow coding and “hack” clubs can empower young people, help them learn self-expression, and find community How pervasive school surveillance undermines trust and limits people’s ability to exercise their rights when they are olderHow young people’s curiosity for how things work online has helped bring us some of the technology we love most If you have any feedback on this episode, please email podcast@eff.org. Please visit the site page at eff.org/pod202 where you’ll find resources – including links to important legal cases and research discussed in the podcast and a full transcript of the audio. This podcast is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology.Music for How to Fix the Internet was created for us by Reed Mathis and Nat Keefe of BeatMower. This podcast is licensed Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, and includes the following music licensed Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported by their creators: Warm Vacuum Tube  by Admiral Bob (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/admiralbob77/59533 Ft: starfroschDrops of H2O ( The Filtered Water Treatment ) by J.Lang (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/djlang59/37792 Ft: AirtonereCreation by airtone (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/airtone/59721

Imagine being detained by armed agents whenever you returned from traveling outside the country. That’s what life became like for Academy Award-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras, who was placed on a terrorist watch-list after she made a documentary critical of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. Poitras was detained close to 100 times between 2006 and 2012, and border agents routinely copied her notebooks and threatened to take her electronics. It was only after Poitras teamed up with EFF to sue the government that she was able to see evidence of the government’s six-year campaign of spying on her. This week on our podcast, Poitras joins EFF’s Cindy Cohn and Danny O’Brien to talk about her continuing work to uncover spying on journalists, and what we can do to fight back against mass surveillance. In this episode you’ll learn about: What life was like for Poitras when she was placed on a terror watch list and put under FBI surveillanceWhy security is a “team sport,” and what we can all do to protect ourselves as well as more vulnerable peoplePoitras’ new work about the NSO Group, an Israeli spyware company that has been accused of facilitating human rights abuses worldwideWhat legal strategies can be used to push back on mass surveillanceThe role of whistleblowers like Edward Snowden and human rights activists in uncovering spying abuses, and how they can be better protectedThe laws that we need to protect professional journalists and citizen journalists in an age where anyone can record the newsIf you have any feedback on this episode, please email podcast@eff.org. Please visit the site page at https://eff.org/pod201 where you’ll find resources – including links to important legal cases and research discussed in the podcast and a full transcript of the audio. This podcast is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology.Music for How to Fix the Internet was created for us by Reed Mathis and Nat Keefe of BeatMower. This podcast is licensed Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, and includes the following music licensed Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported by their creators: Come Inside by Snowflake (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/snowflake/59564 Ft: Starfrosch, Jerry Spoon, Kara Square, spinningmerkaba_____http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/AlexBeroza/59612Kalte Ohren by Alex (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/AlexBeroza/59612 Ft: starfrosch & Jerry Spoon_____http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/zep_hurme/59681Come Inside by Zep Hurme (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/zep_hurme/59681 Ft: snowflake_____http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/djlang59/37792Drops of H2O ( The Filtered Water Treatment ) by J.Lang (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/djlang59/37792 Ft: Airtone  

Our guest from Season 2, Ethan Zuckerman, has his own podcast: Reimagining the Internet. He had EFF's Jillian York as a guest on his show, and we thought you'd like to have a listen to it.

Marc Maron is the host of a successful podcast, and when he and some other pioneers started out he didn’t have to think much about the layers of technology he was using, until a patent troll came to call, asking for thousands of dollars to pay for the “rights” to  podcasting because of a patent they were mis-using to get money from the nascent podcast world. Marc and his producer Brendan knew that if they didn’t take up the fight to stop the trolls, then all of podcasting would be under threat, so they joined up with some EFF lawyers and a whole lot of listeners to win their fight. In this episode you’ll learn about: The prior art, or evidence of earlier technology that EFF was able to present to courts to prove that the so-called “podcasting patent” was invalid.How the landmark Alice v. CLS Bank Supreme Court decision has helped make patent law better, but still didn’t solve the problem of patent trollsWhy patent trolls are a drain on innovationHow we should think about which ideas should be building blocks for the public good, and which should be ownedWhy the community that came together around the podcasting patent fight was critical to EFF’s victoryHow EFF prevailed when the patent troll tried to get the names of EFF donors.If you have any feedback on this episode, please email podcast@eff.org. Please visit the site page at https://eff.org/pod110 where you’ll find resources – including links to important legal cases and research discussed in the podcast and a full transcript of the audio. This podcast is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology.This podcast is licensed Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, and includes the following music licensed Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported by their creators:Warm Vacuum Tube by Admiral Bob (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) Unported license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/admiralbob77/59533 featuring starfroschDrops of H2O ( The Filtered Water Treatment ) by J.Lang (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) Unported license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/djlang59/37792 Ft: AirtoneXena's Kiss / Medea's Kiss by mwic (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) Unported license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/mwic/58883reCreation by airtone (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) Unported license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/airtone/59721

What if we re-imagined the internet to be built by more people, in new ways, that actually worked for us as a public good instead of a public harm? Join Ethan Zuckerman in conversation with Cindy Cohn and Danny O’Brien as they fix and reimagine the internet. They’ll talk about what the internet could look like if a diversity of people built their own tools, how advertising could be less creepy, but still work, and how hope in the future will light the way to a better internet. In this episode you’ll learn about:The challenges researchers face when gathering information and data about our relationship with social media platforms.Different ways to communicate with groups online and how these alternatives would improve online speech.Ways that third parties have tried to give more user control in social media platforms.How censorship, and who we worry about censoring speech, has changed as the internet has evolved.The problems with surveillance advertising and alternative ideas for advertisements on the internet.How the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act blocks research and innovation, and how we can fix it.How communication on the internet has changed over time, why social media giants aren’t getting it right, and how to move forward.If you have any feedback on this episode, please email podcast@eff.org. Please visit the site page at https://eff.org/pod109 where you’ll find resources – including links to important legal cases and research discussed in the podcast and a full transcript of the audio. This podcast is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology.This podcast is licensed Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, and includes the following music licensed Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported by their creators:Come Inside by Zep Hurme (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) Unported license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/zep_hurme/59681 Ft: snowflakePerspectives *** by J.Lang (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) Unported license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/djlang59/60335 Ft: Sackjo22 and Admiral BobXena's Kiss / Medea's Kiss by mwic (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) Unported license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/mwic/58883Drops of H2O ( The Filtered Water Treatment ) by J.Lang (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) Unported license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/djlang59/37792 Ft: AirtonereCreation by airtone (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) Unported license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/airtone/59721

Financial transactions reveal so much about us: the causes we support, where we go, what we buy, who we spend time with. Somehow, the mass surveillance of financial transactions has been normalized in the United States, despite the fourth amendment protection in the constitution. But it doesn’t have to be that way, as explained by Marta Belcher, a lawyer and activist in the financial privacy world. Marta offers a deep dive into financial surveillance and censorship. In this episode, you’ll learn about: The concept of the third party doctrine, a court-created idea that law enforcement doesn’t need to get a warrant to access metadata shared with third parties (such as companies that manage communications and banking services);How financial surveillance can have a chilling effect on activist communities, including pro-democracy activists fighting against authoritarian regimes in Hong Kong and elsewhere;How the Bank Secrecy Act means that your bank services are sharing sensitive banking details on customers with the government by default, without any request from law enforcement to prompt it;Why the Bank Secrecy Act as it’s currently interpreted violates the Fourth Amendment;The potential role of blockchain technologies to import some of the privacy-protective features of cash into the digital world;How one recent case missed an opportunity to better protect the data of cryptocurrency users;How financial surveillance is a precursor to financial censorship, in which banking services are restricted for people who haven’t violated the law.If you have any feedback on this episode, please email podcast@eff.org. Please visit the site page at https://eff.org/pod108 where you’ll find resources – including links to important legal cases and research discussed in the podcast and a full transcript of the audio. This podcast is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology.This podcast is licensed Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, and includes the following music licensed Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported by their creators:Come Inside by Zep Hurme (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) Unported license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/zep_hurme/59681 Ft: snowflakePerspectives *** by J.Lang (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) Unported license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/djlang59/60335 Ft: Sackjo22 and Admiral BobKalte Ohren by Alex (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) Unported license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/AlexBeroza/59612 Ft: starfrosch & Jerry SpoonWarm Vacuum Tube  by Admiral Bob (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) Unported license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/admiralbob77/59533 Ft: starfroschDrops of H2O ( The Filtered Water Treatment ) by J.Lang (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) Unported license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/djlang59/37792 Ft: Airtone