Her expertise is broad: Surveillance systems, computer crime and security, Internet law, data protection, cryptography policy, consumer privacy, copyright and trademark are all within her bailiwick.
Granick, 46, took her current position at Stanford in 2012, rejoining the center where she had been executive director from 2001 to 2007. “It enables people in the government to misuse the data to go after you,” Granick says, “either for sort of selective law enforcement, or for blackmail, or dirty tricks campaigns, or to embarrass you, or to get informants about you or something like that.” As she sees it, the world’s vast trove of digital information can invite abuse. Surveillance stands out in part because she’s working on a book about it-how pervasive it is, what the nature of government misconduct is and how much “regular people” are at risk. “Right now I think it’s really scary,” Granick says, “because we’re living in a time where we found out that much of the most controversial things our government does, it does in secret-and doesn’t tell us about and there’s no clear avenue for us to find out.” Frequently she cites the classified national security files leaked by former government contractor Edward Snowden. She’s fiercely concerned about the vulnerability of average citizens to government surveillance programs ostensibly dedicated to national security and antiterrorism efforts. Now director of civil liberties at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, Granick seems to be engaged as a lawyer, a scholar or an advocate with nearly every hot-button political and social issue influenced by technology. The brief also argued that Congress specifically chose not to require certain technology companies to create “backdoors” into their encryption features to enable access for law enforcement purposes.
Granick signed on to an amicus brief that defended Apple’s interest in building robust privacy and security features into its products. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn wanted Apple to disable the encryption on a mobile device whose owner was under investigation. Librarian of Congress to adopt a rule clarifying that jailbreaking doesn’t violate federal law.īut last fall, their interests aligned. Her group successfully persuaded the U.S. Then, Granick was civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group focused on protecting individuals’ rights in the digital world. The company claimed the practice led to copyright infringement.
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Debate was raging over the practice of “jailbreaking,” which enabled iPhone users to circumvent locks Apple put on its devices so they could switch carriers or install apps not sold by Apple. In 2010, she and the company were at odds. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Earth, Culture, Capital and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.To understand Jennifer Granick’s views on freedom and privacy, consider her interactions with Apple. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter called "If You Only Read 6 Things This Week". Join over three million BBC Travel fans by liking us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
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Why We Are What We Are is a BBC Travel series examining the characteristics of a country and investigating whether they are true. “Oh I see the expectation is already dropping. “Hello, I am Christian and I am a German comedian!” He paused as the crowd jeered. For example, when headlining a show at Top Secret Comedy Club in London in front of a sold-out crowd, he opened with a stab at his nationality. Fully aware of the stereotype the Germans are labelled with, he writes in his new book, Zum Lachen auf die Insel (To England with Laughs), that Germans are too honest to be polite and the English are too polite to be honest.īut Schulte-Loh, who regularly performs at Quatsch Comedy Club in Berlin and tours internationally, says this particular stereotype actually serves him well during his routines. This is a sentiment German comedian Christian Schulte-Loh shares.