dotRights at SXSWi - Wrapup

We spent the last few days in the middle of the exciting whirlwind of the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) festival in Austin, Texas. The festival is one of the largest and most influential gatherings of technology and new media players in the world, and we thought that it would be an important and receptive audience for our online privacy message.

Were we ever right!

In addition to presenting on two panels, we spoke to hundreds of conference-goers about the Demand Your dotRights campaign for online privacy.

Why Online Privacy Is a Core ACLU Issue

As Danah Boyd noted in her excellent keynote address on Saturday at SXSW, minorities and marginalized groups of all types have the most to fear from a world in which everything is public by default. Surveillance is, at its essence, a system of control, and while emerging technologies present amazing opportunities for speech and collaboration—as evidenced by many SXSWi panels and booths–they also provide frightening new avenues for government surveillance. And privacy law has not kept up.

That's why we launched the Demand Your dotRights campaign: to upgrade privacy law so that we can take full advantage of the wonders of modern technology without sacrificing control of our own personal information. And we were thrilled to find so many people at SXSWi who offered their support in this effort!

Working with Companies to Protect Individuals

We also handed out hundreds of copies of our Privacy and Free Speech: It's Good for Business primer to entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and developers. Companies increasingly realize that protecting user privacy and promoting speech help both users and the bottom line–but they often figure that out only after they are hit with a lawsuit or fine or hammered in the press. Privacy and Free Speech: It's Good for Business addresses this problem by helping entrepreneurs and developers bake privacy and free speech protections into their plans and products in the first place, and uses case studies and examples to demonstrate why companies should build these protections into their services rather than try to address these challenges later.

So thanks again to all of our new friends and supporters from Austin, and we hope to continue to work with you as the Demand your dotRights campaign continues to push for better legal and practical protections for online privacy!

Learn more and join the campaign at www.dotrights.org.