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Privacy, Security and Surveillance Take Stage At University Of Utah

humanities.utah.edu

  Matthew Potolsky teaches English at the University of Utah. He also has been teaching a course for two years on secrecy and surveillance.

“Part of it is that I think a lot of people are unaware of how much they’re being surveilled—how much they’re being watched," Potolsky said.

He also said, as he’s taught his students about what exactly they’re sharing and how people can use it, they’re shocked.

“I think you can never remind people enough about what they’re allowing -- what they’re opening themselves to online," Potolsky said.

Last year Potolsky had Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who broke the Edward Snowden story, speak at the University of Utah.

This year science fiction novelist, blogger and technology activist Cory Doctorow will speak. His talk is titled Security, Privacy and Surveillance: Damn Right You Have Something to Hide (and Everything to Fear).

“I think this is going to be the point of Cory’s lecture—you are putting out more information and making way more stuff available than you realize and so in fact you do have something to hide," Potolsky said. 

Potolsky said part of Doctorow’s talk will focus on contemporary technology issues. He will discuss the recent FBI’s use of the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone.

“Any effort to weaken cryptography, to weaken encryption, even if it’s done in the interest of law enforcement is actually only letting the hackers in," Potolsky said.

Doctorow will speak at the University of Utah on April 5th.