Cato Institute 2018 Surveillance Conference

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The legendary spymaster James Jesus Angleton called the world of intelligence a “wilderness of mirrors,” and rarely has that description seemed as apt as it does in 2018. President Donald Trump rails against a “deep state” embedded within the very intelligence agencies over which he now presides—even as former intelligence leaders claim that it’s Trump who has sought to politicize intelligence. In U.S. v. Carpenter, the Supreme Court handed down a seminal Fourth Amendment ruling that could dramatically reshape electronic privacy law—but what it will mean in practice remains radically uncertain. Meanwhile, technology companies ranging from social media platforms to manufacturers of the connected devices that constitute the “Internet of Things” have struggled with how to balance users’ privacy against their own business interests and the surveillance demands of governments around the world.

Join the Cato Institute—and an array of top experts, technologists, and policymakers—for a probing examination of these issues and many more as we seek to navigate the wilderness.

Donald Trump and the “Deep State”

  • Michael Glennon, Tufts University
  • Susan Hennessey, Brookings Institution & Lawfare
  • Kate Martin, Center for American Progress
  • April Falcon Doss, Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP
  • Patrick Eddington, Moderator, Cato Institute

Flash Talks

  • Looking for a Backdoor Down Under: Australia’s War on Encryption Sharon Bradford Franklin
  • Who’s Watching the Kids: Social Media Surveillance of Students Rachel Levinson-Waldman
  • A Million Little Eyes: Building Networks for Facial Recognition Surveillance Jake LaPerruque
  • Spot the Surveillance: A Virtual Reality Tool Dave Maass
  • Low-Hanging Fruit: Evidence-Based Solutions to the Digital Evidence Challenge Jennifer Daskal

Privacy Not Included: Rating the Creep-Factor of Networked Appliances Heather West

Panopticon of Things: Networked Appliances as Surveillance Devices

  • Andrew Ferguson, University of the District of Columbia
  • Hannah Quay-de la Vallee, Center for Democracy and Technology
  • Heather West, Mozilla
  • Matthew Feeney, Moderator, Cato Institute

Flash Talks

  • Watching the Watchers—Facebook Transparency Edition Alexandra Galloway
  • Watching the Watchers—Google Transparency Edition David Lieber
  • Watching the Watchers—FOIA Transparency Edition Jesse Franzblau
  • New Proposals for Law Enforcement Access to Encrypted Communications Matthew Green