Tackling surveillance through decentralization – discussing infrastructure and token economics

• Andres Arauz, UNAM/Nym;
• Gustavo Ammaturo, Fundacion Iberoamericana de Telemedicina/Chronos Pay;
• Octavio Rossel, GNU;
• Harry Halpin, CEO, Nym Technologies;
• Rafael Bonifaz, Derechos Digitales;
• Sally Burch, ALAI.

• In the context of weaponized mass-surveillance, traffic analysis and machine learning, autonomy cannot be a question of individual preference. But how can we make privacy the default and build a decentralized infrastructure, in practice? Current internet business models are all about collecting and exploiting data. With weaponized centralized parties running the infrastructure, user consent is a joke.
• “Take it or leave it” is not a meaningful choice for basic infrastructure. COVID-19 exacerbated this, with more processes going digital, and the roll-out of contact tracing and vaccine certificates. Peripheral states are geopolitically vulnerable and technologically dependent on centralized providers. In reaction to weaponized centralization and data exploitation, recent years have seen a wave of decentralized technologies. New protocols, blockchains, ledgers and autonomous organizations aim to challenge weaponized surveillance capitalism by proposing new models for the internet. This panel will discuss these as an infrastructural approach, and how it can further the aim of global privacy.

• Can we have a decentralized approach to privacy-preserving infrastructures that removes the power of big providers that collect data for profit and weaponization?
• Should peripheral states and autonomous communities actively participate in a decentralized infrastructure system to protect their citizens’ individual and collective sovereignty?
• How can we ensure all participants have the right incentives to make such a system sustainable?
• By decentralizing privacy infrastructure, can we remove the surveillance incentive?
• In such a decentralized infrastructure, who is trusted for what?

References:

• ALAI Who Decides our Digital Future?;
• Rafael Bonifaz’s Thesis;
• Nym White Paper.