Speech van Sacha van Geffen, uitgesproken op 10 december 2011 tijdens de iFreedom Conferentie in Den Haag.
A lot of very good things has been said already and I will try to build on that._
I think, as we said before this morning, security and freedom really intertwine because you need the security to communicate to do it freely. What is important in this sense is that we have to try to raise the costs for surveillance. Surveillance is too cheap on the internet at this point. So we should push the technologies that are safe and secure by default. I think that is very important in the cause of cyber-dissidents and bloggers, because that will move them again from the edges of the field to the whole playing field of encrypted communications.
And here I'd like to add (to the earlier speaker) that fear is an even cheaper commodity then surveillance is. It is very important that we stop the doublespeak. To stop the doublespeak of governments. To stop the doublespeak of corporations. To stop this doublespeak of openness on one side and other side to filter content. For example Australia not so long ago came up with the idea to filter the internet and of course China applauded that. This shows we really need to depoliticise the idea of freedom on the internet because freedom here is as important as freedom there. That is the way in which we can force freedom on the internet.
_We here in Europe here have to look to citizens as citizens, just as we expect from (for example) the Democratic Peoples Republic of China and not to look at citizens as potential suspects.
Another point is that we as a company believe in corporate responsibility. That means that the technology we use is our responsibility. That is more then just the social responsibility for what you produce, but also for the things you put on the market and the stuff you sell. It is important that the industries commit to a code of conduct which is also supported by governments so that these code of conducts might lead to legislation. If we do it this way, and involve corporations, the stakeholders in this legislation, the corporations that are most responsible will have the more benefits from this new laws and it will push the slower companies to take action.
What we have done is that we noted that there is a lack of information in the field. Bloggers might underestimate the risks they are facing. Therefore we teamed up with Free Press Unlimited to get the information in the right place. We need coordinate and work together to get the tools, resources and the knowledge in the right place.
To sum it up: tools, resources, knowledge and make the whole internet more secure by default for anyone and work together to get the right tools, resources and knowledge in the right place.
