ACLU Free Event: Stopping a Surveillance Society

EVENT DETAILS
ACLU National Director's Series: Barry Steinhardt
Privacy in Balance: Stopping the Surveillance Society
Wednesday August 6, 2008 - 6:30-8pm
Location: ACLU offices, 454 Whittier Street 63108
FREE and open to the public.
RSVP encouraged, but not required. Email or phone 314-652-3114 ext 23 scott@aclu-em.org

PRIVACY IN BALANCE: STOPPING THE SURVEILLANCE SOCIETY
From wire tapping to red light cameras, privacy and liberty in the United States are at risk. A combination of lightning-fast technological innovation and the erosion of privacy protections threatens to transform Big Brother from an oft-cited but remote threat into a very real part of American life. We are at risk of turning into a Surveillance Society. The explosion of computers, cameras, sensors, wireless communication, GPS, biometrics, and other technologies in just the last 10 years is feeding a surveillance monster that is growing silently in our midst. Scarcely a month goes by in which we don't read about some new high-tech way to invade people's privacy, from face recognition to implantable microchips, data-mining, DNA chips, and even "brain wave fingerprinting." The fact is, there are no longer any technical barriers to the Big Brother regime portrayed by George Orwell.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Barry Steinhardt has advocated for privacy and information technology issues for many years. Mr. Steinhardt has been director of the ACLU's Program on Technology and Liberty since 2002. He has addressed the issue of the coming surveillance society in a wide variety of settings. Barry has served the Department of Transportation's Negotiated Rule Making on national driver's license standards, the Advisory Committee to the U.S. Census, the Blue Ribbon Panel on Genetics of the National Conference of State Legislatures and the Advisory Board to Privacy International. He also was selected to be a member of the U.S. delegation to the G-8 Government and Private Sector Tokyo conference on cyber crime and served as an advisor to the Czech Helsinki Committee. Barry also served as president of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He has written widely on privacy issues and free expression issues in a variety of periodicals ranging from USA Today, to CIO Magazine, to the journal of the Davos World Economic Forum. Barry is a frequent guest on news and talk programs.