#rp23 keynote speaker Meredith Whittaker: Big Data, Big Business?

We live in a world where our communications, location, relationships, and preferences are monitored by a web of corporate and state actors.

(Meredith Whittaker on netzpolitik.org)

"If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product" is by now a truism. Are there alternatives to platform capitalism that do not involve the collection and analysis of personal data? Is it possible to organise resistance to big tech companies by building alternative organisations? And how can we safeguard against the persecution of critical voices? As president of the Signal Foundation, Meredith Whittaker  is committed to developing open-source privacy technology that protects free expression and enables secure global communications.

Meredtih has over 17 years of experience in tech, spanning industry, academia, and government. Prior to joining Signal, she was the Minderoo Research Professor at NYU, and served as the Faculty Director of the AI Now Institute which she co-founded. Prior to NYU, she worked at Google where she founded Google's Open Research Group, and co-founded M-Lab. She also helped lead organizing at Google and was a central organizer of the Google Walkout. She has advised the White House, the FCC, the City of New York, the European Parliament, and many other governments and civil society organizations on privacy, security, artificial intelligence, internet policy, and measurement.

In 2022, Meredith Whittaker spoke with our friends from netzpolitik.org about smart coffee machines, encryption for everyone and the fatal consequences of a lack of regulation. We are happy to welcome her for the first time at #rp23 this year.