AI
AI Amplifies Existing Harms, Doesn’t Create New Ones
Katharine Trendacosta said AI’s effect is speed and volume. The same privacy concerns that already existed—government surveillance, corporate data collection—are worsened by how fast AI processes information and how much data it consumes. David Greene added that from a legal perspective, the tool rarely changes the question. Harmful speech is harmful regardless of whether a human or an AI generated it. Cooper Quintin warned about AI in policing: hallucinated predictions and facial recognition errors can ruin lives, and the systems replicate past biases.
Age Verification Laws Normalize Identity Requirements
Cooper Quintin said OS-level age verification creates a honeypot of demographic data available to every application. Breaches are inevitable—Discord already leaked its ID store. Sam Baldwin noted the laws assume everyone has a government ID, their own device, and supportive parents. David Greene called age restrictions the biggest existential threat to the free and open internet. The laws disproportionately harm multi-generational, low-income, and queer households.
Activist Security: Debunk the Panopticon Myth
Cooper Quintin argued the best help for activists is threat modeling—understanding that ICE’s surveillance is not perfect. Spreading myths like “Signal is broken” or “ICE can hack any car” only paralyzes people. Katharine Trendacosta said activists need to know the tools available and their trade-offs. Simple steps like turning on disappearing messages in Signal and disabling biometric unlocks before protests reduce risk. EFF’s Surveillance Self-Defense guide at ssd.eff.org is continuously updated.
Wins: Legal Victories and a Decentralizing Internet
David Greene highlighted that EFF’s legal team is winning cases because the current Justice Department is understaffed. They defeated the Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s smart meter spying and supported law firms challenging Trump administration retribution. Katharine Trendacosta celebrated local victories: communities pressuring cities to turn off automated license plate readers. Cooper Quintin pointed to federated platforms like Mastodon, mesh networks like Meshtastic, and peer-to-peer projects like Veil as signs of a decentralized internet.
Q&A
What privacy concerns are exacerbated by AI? Speed and volume of AI amplify existing surveillance and data collection harms. â–¶ 9:15
What problems will OS-level age verification create? It creates a central database of IDs that will be breached and normalizes identity requirements for online access. â–¶ 21:20
How can technologists best support activists worried about opsec? Help them threat model, debunk myths about perfect surveillance, and teach concrete steps like disappearing messages and disabling biometrics. â–¶ 29:48
Notable Quotes
the single biggest uh existential threat I’ve seen to a free and open internet uh is the tremendous momentum behind uh mandated age restrictions online David Greene · ▶ 16:42
privacy nihilism completely taking hold Cooper Quintin · ▶ 20:57
activism is being just slightly annoying. Never underestimate how being slightly annoying how far being slightly annoying can take you. Katharine Trendacosta · ▶ 39:21
Key Takeaways
- EFF sees AI as amplifying existing surveillance and policing harms, not creating new legal questions.
- Age verification mandates threaten anonymity and disproportionately harm vulnerable groups.
- Supporting activists means debunking myths about perfect surveillance and teaching concrete opsec steps.
About the Speaker(s)
David Greene is EFF’s Civil Liberties Director. He leads the team of US lawyers working on free speech and privacy rights issues. His personal expertise is in US free speech law.
Cooper Quintin is a Senior Security Researcher at the EFF Threat Lab. He has worked on projects such as Privacy Badger, Canary Watch, and analysis of state sponsored malware, IMSI catchers, and other digital attacks on activists, journalists, and human rights defenders.