"How to think about what we want" by Daira Emma Hopwood // ECC#2 - Buenos Aires 2025

[applause] Sorry, I hadn't actually thought about how I want to start this. Um, yeah, how do we um kind of articulate what we want um to um achieve? Um, so yeah, I quite like thinking about and and talking about ethical and political uh principles and and how they play out. Um, and so since this is the uh cipher punk congress, I I reread the cipher punks manifesto and the crypto anarchist manifesto. Um, and I I wasn't really very satisfied with what I saw.

I mean, I I like a cipher punch manifesto. Um so that's that's the one that has um cyunk right code the famous quote in it um and it focus on focuses on an anonymity and it talks about um uh uh private electronic cash and so on. Um but it it doesn't really talk about what they're for. Um and the crypto anarchist manifesto um it it basically restricts itself to um saying that widespread deployment of crypto is inevitable. Governments will resist it.

Um but again it's it's not really saying why we're doing this. Okay. So I'm qu disabled. I have a heart condition. Um uh I'm autistic um ADHD and so most of my friends and uh some of them are migrants as well.

Um and we are really under attack at the moment. Um not just by the government in my country I know in the US in many many other countries. Um, and I I believed for a long time that um cyber punks uh cyber punk um values and politics and the things that we build do help. But um how concretely is it helping? Um cuz we use signal um and use um so the things that um cyber books have uh built uh but are they really the the right things we um so when I say that we're under attack by government so I'm talking literally that this is a a Google notification that Um I got it was um just after I'd done another um politically controversial talk.

It was at um the Tan blockchain um conference. Uh one of the things I I said that talk was that governments are terrorists. Um we're under attack in lots of different ways. So um so disabled benefits clinics um are going to be disproportionately affected by this. [clears throat] It's a surveillance bill um it's called based protection bill but it's actually surveillance bill um that allows the UK government um and the department of working pensions which is the main benefits gate um to surveil people's bank accounts um and this is going to lead to huge amounts of injustice because um it with typical false positive rates you're going to um be catching more um uh claimants who have not done anything wrong or the it's the DWP that's uh that's made a mistake than than uh you could possibly uh detect from fraud rates are extremely low trans people.

So um I'll tell you what's going on here. This is um uh the previous specification for um gatekeeping of um uh hormones and um hormone blockers for trans kids. Um what's basically saying is that uh if you support your child um if a gender clinic say is not prescribed um uh hormone blockers or um and you get them prescribed um by someone overseas or there is some doctor but um but they're not part of the NHS gatekeeping process then they'll report you to child services. So, as I was saying, we we have these um commonly used um uh secure communication apps. Um activists like me use them all the time.

Um but we're we're also leaking lots of information. Um so I I don't use I just use Signal to talk about activism. I use Discord or um WhatsApp and so on. I know What WhatsApp does use signal protocol, but um but that's on a um a public group. So the fact that it uses signal uh protocol for private communications is b is beside the point.

Um we're always leaking information that um really could be a serious problem in future. Um and there's a conflict between um kind of organizing privately uh or the there's an apparent conflict um between organizing privately um and trying to get enough people to to join in to to join in with the protest that's being organized for example. Um I don't really know how to solve this but I know that um many uh activist groups are struggling with it. um the activist groups that I've uh been involved with in Manchester um I struggled with it. Um we had for example um uh we were doing a um [clears throat] a presentation on um so self-made comments um and uh a bunch of tests um showed up as transphobic people um and so with the help of some we um we managed to keep them out and and the um the event went ahead perfectly Well, um just sharing information.

Um but in order to um avoid the test knowing where we we're next time, change the um date of the meeting. And then on the next meeting a third of the people turned up. Uh and that group was um it it really affected um because of the security um sort of um precautions that we needing to take to um to avoid transcripts. It really um affected how many people were able to come um the popularity of the group until um something that really transphobic ruling happened and then the group recovered um because people protesting that. Um so signal works best for um kind of operational details of things but [clears throat] um for for day-to-day activist organizing um I I don't know whether it's that well suited um but sometimes you can avoid unnecessary infighting by um [clears throat] by having conversations in private but let's be realistic the um the bad guys uh by which I mean of fascists and and authoritarians and kind of people politically opposed to preemptive politics.

Um then they've already got the data they need to destroy people's lives. They already know who we are. Um and we we kind of joke about this sometimes. um they know who we are and yeah it it's really a problem um because it doesn't take very long for a repressive government to find its political enemies and eliminate them. Yeah, people like this.

Um so a lot of what um activists need isn't handled by um the crypto we currently have. Um an another example of this. So um uh if you're um sort of doing activism um that's uh supporting migrant communities um a lot of them will not speak English as their first language. Um if you're doing disabled activism then um uh people may need um accessibility features that are not in your application apps and maybe the don't integrate well with the um the operating system features. Um so yeah this is the the this is from Wikipedia just the the basic spark um diagram.

Um and we've designed um apps that can handle this scenario uh with some caveats. I mean we don't know really whether our platforms are secure. Um a lot of our users are um are using phones that um so they they've got um they haven't chosen the phones specifically for um uh for security reasons. Um but can we handle things like this? So um this is a um a real example with the names changed.

Um so Samia here um her first language is Arabic. Um speak Arabic. They're using WhatsApp because um S phone doesn't support signal. Um uh Samia needs to um use a text to speech interface um uh to uh interact with Google Translate. um that is communicating with um governance of what um cloud infrastructure um similarly Bob um is using the clipboard to to copy and paste messages to deepel which is another translation app um and that's using its own infrastructure and so obviously Mallerie can see this cipher text but um how much of this can he see it's it's really not clear and um Bob and Sam I just have to kind of hope that um that this is secure um and that the conversations well they know that the conversations are um being stored because the um def for example has a history um uh and it has a privacy [clears throat] policy.

So, um presumably if someone hacked into their servers, then uh then there would be um uh at least cipher text um probably plain text of um past communications um until it's deleted. So my thesis is that um although um a lot of us are activists um and not just activists for um for privacy and um freedom to use cryptography um the cyber movement isn't really connecting with um the activist communities and their needs. Um, I think we're we're failing to articulate um and build um systems that that reflect everything that we believe. Um, because we don't just believe in privacy. Um, privacy is quite an abstract concept in some ways.

Um, do we believe in people having housing and health care and food and heating and um is you've seen the um Mos hierarchy of needs diagram with Wi-Fi on the bottom. That that's not a joke because um all of these other things are dependent on internet access. um you can't get health care without um communicating with your GP um or PCP with um with an app. Um so if it's late at night, the only way to get food is to um to order it via an app. Um so your your heating may be dependent on logging to your um um electricity provided portal or whatever.

Um and so um all of these things are are making um our lives even less accessible. Um and we also need I mean talking about access um disabled people um have needs that um are not being met um because our society uh is built around assumptions um uh that only work for for able people. Um

[clears throat]

um I I know that the next talk um by uh uh Emu um is going to be about um sexism and and women's rights. Um it's vital um sort of fundamental human rights um that are being denied um and can only really be defended if we have privacy. Um a habitable environment that that in long term means a habitable planet. Um but it also means freedom from having bombs rain down on you. Um the right to protest is being attacked um in the UK now, in the US, um many different countries.

Um and we need this really to apply to everyone because um our current society treats some people as not deserving of rights. Um it treats Palestinians as not deserving rights, for example. It treats migrants as not deserving of the same rights. um uh migrants are prevented in many countries from uh from having a job and so they're forced to live in poverty. They're forced to live um far below what's considered the poverty level for um uh for citizens of that country.

Um it's unacceptable. Um but this is an issue that I have on my arm. Um, and it's a quote from um, Emma Goldman in her autobiography in my life. I want freedom, the right to self-exression, everybody's right, everybody's right to beautiful, radiant things. Um, the reason I got this tattooed on my arm is that I believe in this politics.

Um, and it's why, um, I build privacy systems. I I think that um I mean the I don't know how well this will go down at the cipher congress but I think their existing manif manifestos are obsolete and they they're written by um white able men who come from are coming from a place of privilege and are not um considering privacy in the abstract and not considering um how it really um affects people um and how [clears throat] important it is to their lives. Let's write a better manifesto. Cipher punks do write code, but um crypto is just a tool. It's it's not an ed.

Um the the end is the the things that we're trying to achieve for a fairer society. Um, and it's not true that just writing um, code is enough for that. We have to write systems that are usable, that actually meet people's needs. Um, and we haven't done that so far. I think I think we're running out of time to do it because um of uh governments and authoritarians um of all stripes um including authoritarians in the private sector bearing down on a lot of people um who don't have time to wait for us to to build the systems that they need.

Yeah. Um so the crypto anus manifesto for example spends a lot of time convincing people that um widely deployed um cryptography is inevitable. Well that happened um but it hasn't actually helped people. Um, I think um I I mean it it's been necessary. It's been necessary to um uh mitigate some of the harms that could otherwise have happened from surveillance.

Um but we are nowhere near where we need to be. Um uh and so when we want to um to write replacement manifestos, we need to to make the argument from the skeptical point of view and not assume that technology will fix anything because the techno utopians are the problem right now. Um yeah, users think um they can't get privacy online. It's not that they don't care about privacy. It's that um if they can't get it, then um why should they sp um pay the um usability cost of privacy tools?

Um and this is why um privacy is an enabler um for protest um for um for working around uh inaccessible and unfair systems. um for for helping others to get around inaccessible and on first steps. Just send them cash. Um, if you really care about a fair society, then um you must care about privacy um because access to even basic necessities. I was talking before about migrants being um forced to live in poverty.

Um it's not just that. it's that they're surveiled constantly um to kind of keep them in line. um the conditions under which um [clears throat] migrants are um held and it's it's almost like an open prison um uh in the UK for example under um what what's still actually the hostile environment although it stopped using that term um or disgraceful people should be treated equally um I don't care whether they're migrants. Um I don't care um so what other um oppressed group that is the um flavor of the data attack they're in. Um you can probably tell how angry I am about this um because um governments are trying to make this worse.

They're trying to um crack down even further um and exploit um [clears throat] people's fears uh insecurities um and make scapegoats of vulnerable groups um and the tools um that they're using for that are surveillance and particularly financial surveillance talking about the um proposal in the UK um to surveil benefit claants um bank accounts. Um, we have to stop this. Um, they are supporting this by demonizing their disfavor groups. It's the the tactic of um authoritarian um groups throughout um history. Um and yeah, this has always been the strategy, not just by by governments and not just by governments that um we think are obviously authoritarian uh by parties that are kind of historically supposed to be leftwing doing the same thing.

Um can cryptocurrency help? Um so I have to declare an interest here. Um I probably didn't don't need to probably didn't need to say that Zcash is a private cryptocurrency because

[clears throat]

um this audience probably knows that. Um but um okay declared that interest um I I don't think that um so in terms of um uh economics um I don't think that uh [clears throat] cryptocurrency is going to solve wealth inequality which is the the main driver of the surveillance and control um but it can help um people to work around restrictions um to give mutual aid to others. Um and as I've said many times, you don't have privacy without financial privacy. Um your financial records um reveal so much about you. Um and that it they often reveal precisely the things um that can be used to discriminate against you.

Um but I I don't I don't know about um other people here but um among my leftist activist friends um cryptocurrency is viewed as a bit of a joke um as a um sort of a casino and a hive of scams um and that um reputation is not um entirely undeserved in some cases. Um yeah, I am going to get in trolium conference. Um but yeah, I guess probably most people agree with me. Um but we do know how to uh make remote payments as private as cash and we know that cash helps people to um uh helps people with the goals that we want to achieve um because um it is much less easily surveiled. Yeah.

Um so before the the current big data and um AI um explosion um the intel agencies were having a huge problem with um keeping keeping up with the sheer amount of data that they were uh uh they were intercepting. Um and I think they probably solved that problem. And it's a um it's a real problem for us because um yeah, there's really no restriction um except for um data being uh encrypted, but it it has to be um actually uh encrypted and not um not easily um bypassed because Um so encryption isn't enough on its own. Um if your adversary can get into the the same group that is being um group encrypted then that's it game over. Um so what um uh things like the um European uh chat control proposal um would do um it it's practical for them to do um and that will happen unless we fight back and fight back hard.

Um so we need to get serious about uh choosing governments as adversaries. Um, I've been saying this for a while. Um, yeah, they have a lot of power and

[clears throat]

um, a lot of the, um, techn are not sufficient. So, um, in conclusion, um, let's try let's write some manifesto that reflect all of our convictions and, uh, say why we care about, um, privacy. um let's build what's needed to grow resistance movements um without uh [clears throat] protesters just ending up on lists that are putting them in danger um or at least allowing them to assess those risks. Um, let's really address the language and accessibility um barriers in our uh in the systems we build because um we're building them for people uh for whom those barriers are particularly significant. Um and let's uh make our privacy enhancing tools

[clears throat]

um out compete um tools that don't provide privacy. And we can do that because we're we're not under the constraints of um kind of having to having always to uh to satisfy commercial capitalist interests. Um I think um that's an advantage that we should press. Okay, there you go. [applause]