About

As the political climate becomes more repressive, surveillance is becoming more sophisticated and weaponized. Activists are no longer protected by improvised or traditional security measures alone. This conference aims to convene a network of experts and activists who can exchange analysis of emerging surveillance technology and then return home to skill up their respective communities.

Who is this conference for?

Our goal is to bring experts in privacy and digital forensics together with activists who are doing the work in social movements. We assume participants are already familiar with basic privacy and security concepts, such as the necessity for encrypted communications, and that they have an understanding of threat modeling.

Why "CounterSpy?"

The name is inspired by the defunct late-70s magazine of the same name, which called attention to the illegal and unconstitutional activities of the CIA. "CounterSpy" is also an expression of our desire to disempower the spies. Today the biggest spies are private security contractors, tech giants, and law enforcement. We want to counter their unaccountable power by equipping civil society with technical knowledge.

In other words, this is a digital security conference, but it's not about how to conduct espionage, snoop, or do cyber police work. Whether government or private, domestic or foreign, we oppose spying in all its forms! Instead we want to promote a culture of privacy that protects the vulnerable from espionage and interference by the powerful.

The Concept

Over the past decade we have seen the emergence of a new playbook for the repression of political dissent. This playbook leans heavily on technology: data extraction from personal phones, geolocation through cellular networks, even criminalizing of association through metadata harvesting.

These surveillance practices - despite being unconstitutional and illegal - have formed the legal justification for attacks on many social movements. They will become even more central in the coming years as authoritarian politicians look to punish their political opposition.

Anyone who believes in the value of social movements must take the initiative to find others, study surveillance, and strategize around questions of security and opacity.

Through a combination of technical curiosity and social solidarity, we can make social movements surveillance-resistant and protect our rights to organize.

Who is organizing this conference? CounterSpy is hosted by Movement Infrastructure Research Network, a project of Community Justice Exchange.