Digital networks provide us with a broad range of new freedoms. Such freedoms come with a price, however, namely that we are permanently on call to send and receive. The question is whether our freedom is actually endangered by living in digital wakefulness, dictated by a power that has the ability to make everything transparent, whose highest priority and preferred legitimisation is security – and not freedom. The fact that even activists see digital wakefulness as their most effective tool against data theft and a security society arouses suspicion: Could it be that the constantly active, all-round participative figures of digital wakefulness – be it the voluntary self-exhibitor or the critical observer – are equally self-revealing in terms of structure? Isn’t it perhaps high time to reflect on one’s right to forget instead of continually expanding the predominant system of surveillance, recording and archiving from all sides? How could such a right be anchored through legal means?
About the speakers
Johannes Masing is a professor of Public Law at the University of Freiburg. As a judge of the German Federal Constitutional Court, he is responsible for cases concerning freedom of the press, the right to demonstrate and data protection. He is a regular op-ed contributor to numerous periodicals including the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Anke Domscheit-Berg is a German entrepreneur (founder of fempower.me and opengov.me), former lobbyist for Microsoft and a politician in the Pirate Party. She is committed to promoting open government and professional opportunities for female managers. She is regularly invited to German talk shows as an expert for network-political issues.
Follow Domscheidt-Berg on Twitter: @anked
Frank Rieger is a non-fiction writer, regular contributor to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and spokesperson for the Chaos Computer Club. Together with Constanze Kurz, he has edited a number of highly-acclaimed books, e.g. “Die Datenfresser: Wie Internetfirmen und Staat sich unsere persönlichen Daten einverleiben und wie wir die Kontrolle darüber zurückerlangen” [The Data Crunchers: How Internet Companies and the Government Devour Our Personal Data and How We Can Regain Control of It] in 2011, and most recently “Arbeitsfrei: Eine Entdeckungsreise zu den Maschinen, die uns ersetzen” [Work-Free: A Journey of Discovery to the Machines Which Are Replacing Us] in 2013.
Follow Rieger on Twitter: @frank_rieger
Critique of Wakefulness: Freedom, Transparency, Surveillance