Your privacy – where has it gone, and will it be back?

<!--HTML--><p class="part"><span><span>In recent years, a lot has been said about privacy – the rights to it, related transgressions, reasons to worry. It seems like questions are multiplying at a high rate, but the answers are not. Should we be concerned, and if so, about what? Should I defend myself, can I defend myself? From whom? Are we risking fundamental freedoms when using FAANG products? Is privacy the same as anonymity? Is giving up privacy a necessary cost of technological progress? Do I have a choice? Are governments and corporations fighting each other over us or collaborating against us? Is “my phone” truly “mine”?</span></span></p> <p class="part"><span><span>We propose to examine privacy with a dose of systematization and in three parts. In the first part, we’ll start weaving a story of how we got here. Starting from the baselines, we’ll journey through history, philosophy and world changes – from the concept of walls in a house to identity documents. In the second part, we’ll discuss our current state, where current worries stem from, current developments and options. We’ll look at what surveillance capitalism means for society (techies and non-techies alike), how our cloud, Android and i-devices grew, and will look at the fringes. In the third part, we’ll take a closer look at emerging major trends, future scenarios (dystopian and optimistic alike) and concrete possibilities for reaction or resistance. We’ll also touch on technical topics such as, for example, the war-like evolution of cryptography.</span></span></p> <p class="part">&nbsp;</p> <p class="part"><span><span>Short bio:</span></span></p> <div> <div class="WordSection1"> <div><em>Andrzej Nowak spent the last 15 years at the juncture of technology, business and innovation</em><em><span>. His early experience was rooted in computer security, and shifted to more general domains while working for CERN and at Intel. &nbsp;</span>Between 2007 and 2014<span>&nbsp;</span></em><em><span>Andrzej</span><span>&nbsp;</span>worked at CERN openlab - a collaboration of CERN and industrial partners such as Google, HP, Huawei, Intel, Oracle and Siemens</em><em><span>&nbsp;</span><span>– and managed one of openlab’s innovation labs</span>. Andrzej was also part of the openlab CTO office, where he helped set up next-generation technology projects for CERN.</em></div> <p><em>More recently, Andrzej founded a small technology and innovation consultancy as well as a fintech start-up. In the last few years, he worked in management consulting in finance and in innovation management.</em><em><span><span>&nbsp;</span>Andrzej’s current topics of interest include the future of identity, privacy, and money.</span></em></p> </div> </div>