Monthly Archives: April 2018

Next Privacy Salon 09/05/18 – Ad networks are following you, follow them back

After the scandals surrounding Facebook and Cambridge Analytica everyday users are more aware than ever about what data gathering companies do with the information we wittingly or unwittingly provide to them. But what about the data we “provide” just by visiting a website? In this Privacy Salon we will look at what goes on “behind the scenes”.

“Ad networks are everywhere. They are annoying, intrusive, and every couple of month one of them gets compromised and does nasty things to visitors. But how bad is it in practice? This talk will present an open source tool aiming to help anyone figure out what is going on on a specific website.

We talk about going to webpages. But really, webpages come to us, and increasingly dozens of companies at a time do complicated and invisible things on our computers with every site we “visit”. This has gotten so obfuscated that popular websites using ad technology, plug-ins, and tools from various vendors are often as ignorant of what they’re serving as their users are of what they’re receiving. This has resulted in rampant privacy violations, broken features, and even major media sites unintentionally serving malware.

We made Lookyloo to help. Lookyloo builds a tree view of all domains loaded from a specific URL and what those domains are up to. It can traverse a site to a user-specified depth, mimicking a legitimate user. We will demonstrate how it works in practice and look at the information we can extract from it, seeing where our data is taken to.”

#PrivacySalonDishonourableMentions

Rosi is away but we will again be doing an uptade on recent developments in the dodgy world of surveillance capitalism and how to maintain privacy and security despite the dishonourable behaviours found.  (As always, there may be some honourable mentions too 😉 )

Date:
Wednesday 09/05/18, 19:00

Address:
Level2
87 route de Thionville
L-2611 Luxembourg

Luxembourg Digital Privacy Salon is free, intended for everyone, no prior technical expertise is assumed. This year the Privacy Salon is presented in collaboration with BEE SECURE in the frame of the campaign “Big Data – Who does what with my data?.”

WITH THE SUPPORT OF

Why Privacy Salon? Ask Rosi ;-)

BEE SECURE recently interviewed Rosi, asking about her transition from Privacy Salon attendee to speaker. The interview is also available in French and German.

Digital Privacy Salon – Interview with a visitor/guest speaker

In the framework of International Women’s Day, the Digital Privacy Salon explored privacy issues in relation to women – but with information and tips that apply to everyone.

From making a smart dating profile to private browsing, one of the guest speakers, Kasia, shared practical tips for staying safe online from the Violet Blue Book “the smart girl’s guide to privacy” and from her own life experience.

The second guest speaker, Rosi, gave an update on recent developments in the world of surveillance and how one could maintain privacy and security despite the dishonourable behaviours that she had found.

It was the first keynote that Rosi gave at a Privacy Salon. She has been a regular visitor of the Privacy Salon, hence she was really excited to share her experiences for the first time on the “stage” of the Level 2 Hackerspace in Bonnevoie.

BEE SECURE had the opportunity to interview her on her experiences regarding the Privacy Salon and how these attendances have changed her perspective on data and privacy protection.

  1. Could you please tell us how and why you ended up at your first Privacy Salon?

The first time I attended the Privacy salon was in July 2015. I saw the invite on the Luxembourg meetup page, and thought it could be interesting, as ever since I watched “Minority report”, I have been aware what having too much data about me could do. The workshop offered to show practical tools and help us secure our data, so it sounded like a perfect fit to expand my knowledge.

At first, it seemed a bit scary to go, because I did not know what I could expect and did not know anybody there as I came alone. However, it was summer, it was on Saturday and there was free pizza, so I could not lose anything by going. I took my laptop and headed to Level2. At the end I stayed after the privacy salon, hung out with the people there and even watched a movie, since it was also the bimonthly movie night at Level2.

  1. How would you describe the Privacy Salon to a person that has never participated?

It is a very practical workshop/meeting where in a safe space you can learn different tips and tricks on how to protect your data and have an honest conversation, which is not driven by some commercial agenda.

  1. Can you describe your most positive / influencing experience at a Privacy Salon?

Would be difficult to name only one, as the Privacy salon gave me many useful tools, but I would say the urge to search and expand my understanding on data privacy and security, as well as that feeling protective about your data is not a bad thing, as there are other people like you out there.

  1. Would you say that your perspective on data and privacy protection has changed since first visiting a Privacy Salon? How?

Yes, I learned about more channels, from which my data could be taken and used without my knowledge. It put emphasis on sayings such as “if a service is free, you are the product”, which I did not reflect that much before. Thus, following these workshops I am much more aware of the data I give and I can make a conscious choice to use a certain service or not. For instance, I would not like to have a smartwatch or other health tracking devices, because I am not sure how much this data is protected, and how it could be used by future employers, insurance companies or advertisers.

  1. Privacy Salon meetings aim to share practical tools with people to protect their data from “intrusive surveillance”. Which are your top three tools and / or advises that you’d like to share with us?

  • The privacy salon website https://www.privacysalon.lu/: I always use this website as a reference every time I get on a new laptop with internet (either mine of my friends) and want to install adblocker and other useful plugins they are not aware of. It is a starting pack for an unsuspecting internet user .

  • Twitter: I got registered after my first privacy salon, as I was told this is the best way to keep up with the data privacy news and other tech news. With some fine-tuning of your twitter algorithm and the right people to follow you can indeed get a lot of interesting data related news and discussions, which is difficult to achieve with any other social media. Twitter is the one social media I do not consider as waste of time, as it teaches me stuff and exposes me to interesting content.

  • Podcasts: As in my daily life/work I am mostly surrounded by people who are not concerned much about sharing their data, it was difficult at first for me to get further in these topics and grow my vocabulary and understanding. Podcasts on data privacy and cyber issues are a great way to listen to such conversations and get exposed to them. My favourites are Defensive security (http://defensivesecurity.org/), Note to self (https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/notetoself/) and WIRED Security spoken edition (https://poddtoppen.se/podcast/1211754233/wired-security-spoken-edition).

If you already are or if you have become interested in visiting a Privacy Salon, check out the BEE SECURE agenda for the upcoming dates. The Digital Privacy Salon is free, intended for everyone, no prior technical expertise is assumed. For more information on the initiative, visit http://www.privacysalon.lu

Next Privacy Salon 17/04/18 – A DeepDive Into Deep Fakes

Nearly anyone with a laptop and an Internet connection can now distort visual reality to offer exceptionally realistic — but utterly fake — photos and videos of events that did not occur, apparently perpetrated by people who were never there.

Using technology called  “DeepFakes” (a portmanteau of computer neural network’s deep learning and fake), hobbyists can now transfer video images of one person’s face to video of another person’s body. This technology, also called Face2Face, has spawned a thriving, competitive community of amateurs creating clever mash-ups of people and faces — and has allowed malicious users to paste celebrity faces on the bodies of pornographic actors. One variant of the technology, so far used only by computer scientists, allows users to animate the facial gestures of a selected “target”with the facial gestures of another person, in real time.

Washington Post 03/04/18

We’ll be taking a deep dive into the world of Deep Fakes, examining the world of DFAAS (DeepFakes As A Service), looking at the privacy issues and the wider implications of a world where you can no longer trust anything that you see or hear.

It’s the future, but not as we know it…

 
#PrivacySalonDishonourableMentions

Rosi will again be updating us on recent developments in the dodgy world of surveillance capitalism and how to maintain privacy and security despite the dishonourable behaviours she has found.  (There may be some honourable mentions too 😉 )

Date:
Tuesday 17/04/18, 19:00

Address:
Level2
87 route de Thionville
L-2611 Luxembourg

Luxembourg Digital Privacy Salon is free, intended for everyone, no prior technical expertise is assumed. This year the Privacy Salon is presented in collaboration with BEE SECURE in the frame of the campaign “Big Data – Who does what with my data?.”

WITH THE SUPPORT OF