Tech Policy Grind

Welcome back to the Tech Policy Grind Podcast by the Internet Law and Policy Foundry. In this episode, Joe Catapano chats with Adam Kovacevich, Chamber of Progress and Carl Szabo, NetChoice on whether the U.S. can, will, or should ban TikTok. There are many options being discussed from an outright ban on the app, to divestiture and audits of TikTok’s algorithms. 

Take a listen to hear from two of DC’s experts in tech policy on whether the U.S. can ban TikTok. 

Note: We recorded this episode on January 12, 2023. It does not reflect any developments after that date. 

You can connect with Adam on Twitter @adamkovac, and Carl @carlszabo. Visit https://progresschamber.org/ for more information on the Chamber of Progress and https://netchoice.org/ for more information on NetChoice.

Thanks for listening, and stay tuned for Season 4 this coming March!

Joe participates in the Internet Law & Policy Foundry in his personal capacity. Any commentary in this podcast is his alone and does not reflect the views of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. ICANN is a technical organization and does not deal with matters related to content, apps, or anything outside of the Internet’s unique identifiers as outlined in its mission. 

What a year it’s been…in this episode, some familiar faces (or rather, voices) from the Tech Policy Grind team of Internet Law and Policy Foundry Class 4 Fellows come together to review the revival of the pod with Season 3 this year. We dive into the original history behind the podcast’s conception, what the Foundry has been up to this year, and what we’re looking forward to in 2023.

Also, we chat over some exciting changes coming to the Foundry Fellowship in 2023. If you’re interested in joining the Foundry as a Fellow, make sure to check out ilpfoundry.us and follow us on social media (LinkedIn and Twitter @ILPFoundry) for updates on when the 2023 Fellow Application will be released.

It’s been a wild ride. Whether you’ve been tuning in since the beginning or just hopped on, we want to hear from you! Reach out to us at [email protected]. What are your thoughts on the show this season, and what are you hoping to see in Season 4?

That’s right; we’ll be back in 2023 with some exciting changes for Season 4 of your favorite tech policy podcast.

Signing off for now – have a happy new year everyone!

Much love,

Reema, Meri, Joe, Lama, and the whole Tech Policy Grind Team

If you’d like to support the show, please donate to the Foundry here.

Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions discussed in this episode do not reflect the views of the organizations and institutions that Reema, Meri, Joe, and Lama are affiliated with.

We’re coming down to the end of Season 3 of the Tech Policy Grind! For our last Fellow Highlight of the season (and 2022), Reema chats with Class 4 Foundry Fellow Nathan Reitinger, PhD Candidate in Computer Science at the University of Maryland…and JD? Tune in to hear about Nathan’s experience in applied privacy, and what a career at the nexus of law and computer science looks like.

Nathan is a lawyer and computer scientist. He holds a masters in computer science, security track, from Columbia University (advised by Steve Bellovin), a JD from Michigan State (licensed in New Hampshire), and is currently enrolled in a computer science PhD program at the University of Maryland (advised by Michelle Mazurek). Nathan’s work focuses on where law and computer science meet, using tools from each of the respective disciplines to solve interesting problems. More specifically, he works in the area of applied privacy: It shouldn’t take a masters-level degree in computing to obtain privacy in today’s world, but it does—and we should fix that!

Check out Nathan’s website here; https://nathanreitinger.umiacs.io/

If you would like to sponsor an episode or propose a guest for the show, get in touch with us: [email protected]

If you’d like to support the show, please donate to the Foundry here.

Article Mentioned: EU Commission Publishes Draft Adequacy Decision on Privacy Shield 2.0 [Goodwin Procter, Data + Privacy + Cybersecurity Insights Blog by Lore Leitner, Boris Segalis, Omer Tene, Gretchen Scott, Gabe Maldoff, Josephine Jay and Arjun Dhar].

2022 is nearly over, and it’s been a wild year for privacy. In this episode, Reema sits down with Keir Lamont, Senior Counsel and U.S. Legislation Lead at the Future of Privacy Forum. Keir recaps what happened in the world of privacy legislation in 2022, and what the tech policy world can expect out of privacy legislation in the New Year.

Keir Lamont, CIPP/US, is a Senior Counsel with the Future of Privacy Forum’s U.S. legislation team. In this role, he supports policymaker education and independent analysis concerning federal, state, and local consumer privacy laws and regulations. Previously, Keir held positions at CCIA and the Program on Data and Governance at Ohio State University. He holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A. in Political Science & Economics from the University of Florida. Follow him on Twitter @keir_lamont.

Check out Keir’s latest blog post, “Five Big Questions (and Zero Predictions) for the U.S. State Privacy Landscape in 2023” on the FPF website.

If you would like to sponsor an episode or propose a guest for the show, get in touch with us: [email protected]

If you’d like to support the show, please donate to the Foundry here.

Thanks for listening!

Welcome back to the Tech Policy Grind Podcast by the Internet Law and Policy Foundry. In this episode, Joe Catapano, ILPF Class 4 Fellow interviews Edward McNair, Executive Director of the North America Network Operators Group (NANOG). We all know the role that lawyers and government officials play in contributing to tech policy, but how do the people that “make it work” (e.g. network operators, software engineers) help develop the rules of the road?

NANOG is just one of many organizations that bring technical expertise to the table, whether it’s feeding into formal policymaking processes at global multi-stakeholder bodies, or raising awareness with lawmakers. Hear how NANOG works to represent the needs and views of the Internet’s technical communities.

Edward McNair is the Executive Director of NANOG. He is also the co-founder of Kaskadian, an agency that provides branding, marketing and sales support for startups and new businesses. Prior to Kaskadian, Edward served as Chief Executive Officer for Verilan, an IT company that delivered just-in-time, enterprise-quality networks. Previously, he was Vice President of Internet Marketing for R2C, a leading direct marketing agency, and was Creative Director for the WiMAX Forum, a global Internet and telecom consortium. You can read Edward’s full bio on the NANOG website.

Coming soon from the Foundry: keep an eye out for the next round of applications to become a Foundry Fellow!

If you’d like to sponsor an episode or propose a guest for the show, get in touch with us: [email protected]

If you’d like to support the show, consider donating to the Foundry; you can do so here.

Welcome back to the Tech Policy Grind! Today, Reema chats with Caitlin Chin, a Class 4 Fellow at the Foundry and a a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), on her work at the intersection of privacy, antitrust, and algorithmic bias.

At CSIS, Caitlin researches technology regulation in the United States and abroad. She previously worked as a research analyst at the Brookings Institution, where her projects centered around U.S. federal and state legislation related to information privacy, antitrust, and algorithmic bias. At Brookings, Chin coauthored “Bridging the gaps: A path forward to federal privacy legislation” (with Cameron Kerry, John Morris Jr., and Nicol Turner Lee), which put forward a comprehensive framework for national commercial privacy standards in the United States.

In addition, she has published over two dozen other reports or commentaries on public policy issues including “Addressing Big Tech’s power over speech” (with Bill Baer) and “Why Democrats and Republicans would benefit from hate crime protections for Asian Americans.”

She’s also spoken on C-SPAN, WOSU/NPR, and France 24, and her work has been cited by the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Future of Privacy Forum, among other organizations. She has a BA in government and Spanish from the University of Maryland and an MPP from Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.

Her master’s thesis, “Examining national privacy laws in the context of international trade,” won a student paper award at the 48th Research Conference on Communications, Information, and Internet Policy (TPRC48) in 2020. She was also a recipient of Public Knowledge’s 20/20 Visionaries award in 2021.

Coming soon from the Foundry: keep an eye out for the next round of applications to become a Foundry Fellow!

If you’d like to sponsor an episode or propose a guest for the show, get in touch with us: [email protected]

If you’d like to support the show, consider donating to the Foundry; you can do so here.

In this episode, Foundry Fellow Meri Baghdasaryan sat down with the representatives of three winning teams at the Foundry’s 2022 Policy Hackathon. This year the Hackathon’s theme was “Trust, Safety and Privacy in the Metaverse.” The participants were tasked with pitching a proposal to address some of privacy, trust, and safety challenges in immersive technology. 

Meri chats with Mana, Raktima and Tom, who respectively represent teams at the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place among the 2022 Policy Hackathon winners. They share their impressions about the Hackathon experience, present their policy proposals and provide advice for participants of next Hackathon editions. 

Check out the presentations of the winning teams below:

Stay tuned for more info on how you can enter the 2023 Policy Hackathon from the ILP Foundry.

Coming soon from the Foundry: keep an eye out for the next round of applications to become a Foundry Fellow!

If you’d like to sponsor an episode or propose a guest for the show, get in touch with us: [email protected]

Foundry Job Board: ilpfoundry.us/jobs

If you’d like to support the show, consider donating to the Foundry; you can do so here.

Missed our exciting CYBER CON event with the WiCyS Privacy, Law, and Policy Affiliate? The Tech Policy Grind has you covered.

Foundry Fellows Reema Moussa, Allyson McReynolds, Grant Versfeld & Lama Mohammed discuss highlights from the Foundry’s first ever virtual cybersecurity convention, starring Amie D’Souza, Josephine Wolff, Kassi Burns, Eva Galperin and Siena Anstis. They chat about the event’s key theme; cybersecurity risk mitigation in law and policy, as well as particular practices around cyber insurance, cyber hygiene for lawyers, and spyware. The Fellows talk through why cyber policy matters and key takeaways from the event.

This episode includes snapshots from the event, but you can watch the entire CYBER CON event! Check out the full recording of the CYBER CON Summit here.

Coming soon from the Foundry: keep an eye out for the next round of applications to become a Foundry Fellow!

If you’d like to sponsor an episode or propose a guest for the show, get in touch with us: [email protected]

If you’d like to support the show (and CYBER CON in the future), consider donating to the Foundry; you can do so here.

Resources Mentioned:

Scraping Suit Hinges On When LinkedIn Discovered Violations [Law360]

Thanks for listening, and see you next time!

Welcome back to the Tech Policy Grind! This week, Reema chats with former Foundry Fellow Lena Ghamrawi on her pathway to becoming a privacy attorney. In this episode, she shares her experience growing up in the post-9/11 surveillance environment and how her passion for civil rights (and mentorship along the way) cultivated an interest in privacy law.

A little more about Lena: she’s a privacy lawyer dedicated to ensuring consumer personal data is used responsibly. Lena currently serves as Privacy Counsel and Data Protection Officer for Quora Inc., where she advises on global privacy laws. She has helped Silicon Valley tech companies, federal agencies, and Fortune 500 companies develop privacy programs.

In 2020 she helped launch a watchdog dedicated to investigating mobile app privacy practices. There, she worked with regulatory agencies, big tech platforms, and members of Congress to remedy malpractice. Lena founded the Washington DC Women in Security and Privacy (WISP) affiliate and is always looking for ways to provide mentorship.

Coming soon from the Foundry: keep an eye out for the next round of applications to become a Foundry Fellow!

If you’d like to sponsor an episode or propose a guest for the show, get in touch with us: [email protected]

If you’d like to support the show, consider donating to the Foundry; you can do so here.

Welcome back to the Tech Policy Grind Podcast by the Internet Law and Policy Foundry. In this episode, Reema and Lama talk over some big lawsuits of the week before Class 4 Fellow Rebecca Kilberg dives deep with technologist Jeremy Avnet, former Director of Infrastructure Engineering at TrussWorks. They chat about the role of engineers and tech-minded folks in developing tech policy and the pitfalls of prescriptive policy.

How should tech policy guide engineers developing software? What is useful to specify and what yields unintended consequences? Our experts discuss the difficulties of encountering prescriptive policy that mandates a rigid solution in a changing landscape. They explore the difficulties of developing software that adheres to federal guidelines even when all parties are aligned. Finally, they examine the specific example of DNS security over the last 15 years as a case study.

Also, coming up: the Foundry and Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) Privacy, Policy & Law Affiliate are pleased to present CYBER CON, a virtual cybersecurity convention. Join us in celebration of Cybersecurity Awareness Month! CYBER CON will take on Friday, October 28 starting at 11AM ET / 8AM PT and run until 2:30PM ET / 11:30AM PT. Register here!

If you would like to sponsor an episode or propose a guest for the show, get in touch with us: [email protected]

Further, if you’d like to support the show, please donate to the Foundry.

Thanks for listening!