2016 Cato Surveillance Conference

December 14, 2016 8:30 am

Eight years ago, Barack Obama arrived in Washington pledging to reverse the dramatic expansion of state surveillance his predecessor had presided over in the name of fighting terrorism. Instead, the Obama administration saw the Bush era’s “collect it all” approach to surveillance become still more firmly entrenched. Meanwhile, the advanced spying technologies once limited to intelligence agencies have been gradually trickling down to local police departments. From the high-profile tussle between Apple and the FBI over smartphone encryption to debates over how to detect “lone wolf” terrorists before they strike, hard questions about modern privacy have figured prominently in the 2016 presidential race. Moreover, as WikiLeaks’ sensational release of hacked Democratic Party e-mails demonstrated, surveillance isn’t just a campaign issue: It’s a campaign tactic too. As the nation braces itself for a new presidential administration, the Cato Institute will gather technologists, legislators, activists, and intelligence officials to survey the privacy landscape, look ahead to the issues Americans will be debating over the next eight years — from government hacking to predictive “big data” to the “Internet of things” — and examine how and whether Americans can still live at least occasionally free from prying eyes.

9:00 - 9:15AM WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION 

Julian Sanchez, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute

9:15 - 10:30AM PANEL – INTELLIGENCE UNDER A TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

Moderator: Shane HarrisWall Street Journal

Susan Hennessy, Fellow, Brookings Institution

Timothy Edgar, Visiting Fellow, Watson Institute for International & Public Affairs at Brown University

Carrie Cordero, Former Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for National Security, Department of Justice

Matthew Olsen, Former Director, National Counterterrorism Center

10:30 - 10:45AM BREAK
10:45 - 12:00PM PANEL – GOVERNMENT HACKING

Ellen Nakashima, National Security Reporter, Washington Post

Amie Stepanovich, U.S. Policy Manager, AccessNow

Kevin Bankston, Director, Open Technology Institute, New America Foundation

Matt Blaze, Associate Professor of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania

Richard Downing, Assistant Deputy Attorney General, Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Division, U.S. Department of Justice

12:00 - 1:10PM LUNCH KEYNOTE – SURVEILLANCE OF COMMUNITIES OF COLOR

Wade Henderson, President, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights

1:10 - 1:35PM FLASH TALKS – WATCHING THE WATCHERS

Improving Intelligence Oversight

Nathan Leamer, Policy Analyst, R Street Institute

Surveillance and the Role of Technology Companies

Mieke Eoyang, Vice President for National Security Program, Third Way

1:35 - 2:50PM

PANEL – COUNTERING VIOLENT EXTREMISM

Patrick Eddington, Policy Analyst, Cato Institute

Michael German, Fellow, Brennan Center for Justice

Maya Berry, Executive Director, Arab American Institute

Sharia Mayfield, Staff Attorney, Oregon Department of Justice

Luther Reynolds, Assistant Chief, Montgomery County Police Department

Arjun Singh Sethi, Director of Law & Policy, Sikh Coalition

2:50 - 3:15PM

FLASH TALKS – LOCAL SURVEILLANCE

Ways to Use and Misuse Facial Recognition With Police Body Cameras

Jake Laperruque, Privacy Fellow, Constitution Project

How Police Monitor Social Media

Rachel Levinson-Waldman, Senior Counsel, Brennan Center for Justice at New York University

3:15 - 3:30PM BREAK
3:30 - 4:00PM FLASH TALKS – SURVEILLANCE IN A BORDERLESS WORLD

Schemers and the International Backlash Against U.S. Surveillance

Alan Butler, Senior Counsel, Electronic Privacy Information Center

When Can Law Enforcement Seize Data Across Borders?

Jennifer Daskal, Associate Professor of Law, American University Washington College of Law

4:00 - 5:00PM DIALOGUE: THE STATE OF SURVEILLANCE

Moderator: Charlie SavageNew York Times

Jennifer Granick, Director of Civil Liberties, Center for Internet & Society at Stanford University

Alexander W. Joel, Civil Liberties Protection Officer, Office of the Director of National Intelligence

5:00 - 5:30PM CLOSING REMARKS 

Marc Zwillinger, Founder, ZwillGen PLLC

5:30PM RECEPTION
 

 

Location: 
Cato Institute Washington, DC
Focus Area: 

Add new comment