[liberationtech] Why we withdrew from the Amsterdam Privacy Conference

[Yosem Companys]

From: Stefania Milan <s.milan at uva.nl> posted to <
mediastudies at listcultures.org>

Dear all

This is to inform you of an ongoing controversy around the sponsorship of
the Amsterdam Privacy Conference (apc2018.com) by Palantir.
This prompted myself and Becky Kazansky, co-organizers of the track
‘Digital Society and Surveillance’, to withdraw from the conference in
mid-August, although we did spend a lot of time selecting abstracts and
creating the program (and were of course very much looking forward to what
looks otherwise a great event).

We have explained our concerns here:
https://data-activism.net/2018/09/why-we-wont-be-at-apc-2018/ (co-authored
with the Data Justice Lab at Cardiff University).
A broader coalition of colleagues in the Netherlands and abroad has also
raised concerns: https://fundingmatters.tech/ >>here you also find info to
add your signature, if you so wish.

While we respect the hard-work of our colleagues in putting together such
an ambitious event (and as conference organizer myself I feel their pain
when it comes to securing funds), we believe a public university like the
UvA should not enter in partnerships that smell of... privacy-washing.

Best regards, Stefania

Stefania Milan
Associate Professor of New Media and Digital Culture, University of
Amsterdam | https://stefaniamilan.net
Principal Investigator, DATACTIVE (ERC Starting Grant 639379) |
https://data-activism.net
@annliffey | @data_ctive
+31627875425 | +31(0)205252416
Fingerprint: 5A7B  6330  5684  FC39  3DC0 67D7  08B3  50AE  6AF5  1B63
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