<div dir="ltr">Hi all, we are indeed having a Ta3m tonight. (This announcement is delayed due to listserv problems, apologies!)<br><br><p>Techno Activism 3rd Mondays is an international, monthly meetup
designed to connect people interested in modern anti-censorship and
anti-surveillance issues. <a href="https://twitter.com/TA3Mseattle" target="_blank">TA3M Seattle</a>
is Seattle Privacy Coalition’s “sister organization” because of our
shared goals in advocating for personal privacy, and we are happy to be
announcing November’s TA3M!</p>
<h1>We are meeting this month!</h1>
<p><strong>When</strong>: Monday, November 16, 2015, 6:30 – 9:00 PM<br>
<strong>Where</strong>: University of Washington Computer Science & Engineering building (CSE) room 303 [<a href="https://www.cs.washington.edu/visitors/getting_here" target="_blank">directions</a>]</p>
<p>* Free pizza! *</p>
<hr>
<strong>Talk one (7PM)</strong>:
<h1>Virtualization for Security: An Introduction</h1>
<p>This talk will explore virtualization and it’s utility within
security and maintaining privacy. Learn about what virtualization is,
the attack surface and threat model for virtualization software, the
impact of recent vulnerabilities such as VENOM, and what the future of
virtualization looks like. Finally, find out how you can use
virtualization to limit compromise and compartmentalize everyday
activity with the open source operating system Qubes OS. Note: despite
the technical nature of this topic, effort will be made to ensure that
this material is valuable to end users.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewX192" target="_blank">Andrew Sorensen</a>
is a security engineer at Twitter and former security consultant at
Leviathan Security Group. In his spare time, Andrew enjoys researching
virtualization security issues and building secure implementations of
typically challenged software use cases (including home automation /
internet of things).</p>
<hr>
<strong>Talk two (8PM)</strong>:
<h1>Informational Privacy and Social Privilege: Discriminatory Data Practices in the Information Society</h1>
<p>The well-off have historically sought to separate themselves from
everyone else, employing privilege to maintain affluence and
exclusivity. Gated communities, private schools, shell corporations,
complex financial instruments — the tendency by elites to seek special
advantages and insulation from others and to obscure themselves within
walled gardens is well-established. Ghettos, glass ceilings, housing and
employment discrimination and other elements of institutionalized
oppression are obstacles that have historically prevented the
unprivileged from gaining access to the educational and economic
opportunities necessary to escape cycles of poverty and achieve the
“good life.” As both the positive and negative inclinations of the
material world find expression in the digital world, a move to separate
and segment society is finding its way there as well, leading to new
forms of oppression and social sorting.</p>
<p>These effects are not arbitrary, but reflect the biases inherent in
our society and within the culture of information technology production
and use. Information systems are truly socio-technical systems and, as
such, have the capacity to amplify preexisting inequalities through
practice and use, including pervasive data collection by major data
controllers and an increasing inability to engage in socially-beneficial
“forgetting.” So, we are left to cope with the fallout of the status
quo as if this were all inevitable. Given the demographic makeup of the
designers, producers and early adopters of information systems, it
should not be surprising what inclinations these systems reflect and
which groups find themselves dispossessed within the information
society.</p>
<p><a href="https://ischool.uw.edu/people/phd/mkatell" target="_blank">Mike Katell</a> is a PhD student at the University of Washington Information School.</p>
<hr><br></div>