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NymRights: Protecting Identity in the Digital Age
with aestetix, founder of NymRights
Tuesday, September 30, 2014 at 12:30 pm
Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
23 Everett Street, Second Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP required for those attending in person via the form below
Event will be webcast live on this page at 12:30 pm.
Do you have a name? More than one? Does it matter to you who knows it? As digital systems become more integrated into our lives, these questions are becoming very important. We’re in the midst of a literal identity crisis where your identity is quickly becoming, rather than something you define, a social construct that is granted to you. This talk will explore the philosophy of names and identity, the digital systems we’ve created over the past decades, and the challenges that arise when the systems come into conflict with individual safety and freedom. We’ll take a look at the current state of name-related policy within both companies and government, and introduce ongoing efforts to make sure your identity is not just a number in a computer.
About aestetix
After being suspended twice by Google Plus during the nymrights fiasco of 2011, aestetix helped created NymRights, focused on empowerment and education of digital identity. He’s spoken on this topic at events in Germany, New York City, San Francisco, including hacker conferences, digital rights events, and even a few universities. He’s also been involved in the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), an Obama strategy to try to solve identity related challenges in areas like medicine and social security.