New subject: Your proposal: The Four Horsemen of the Privacy Apocalypse

25 Sep 2026

      Hi,
I've added our program committee to this thread, I'll check with them
to confirm this as soon as possible.
On Fri, 25 Sep 2026 11:53:34 +0300
openfest--- via Core core@openfest.org wrote:
...
Dear friends!
While I recognize that your CFP is still open until the 1st of
October, November is drawing very close. As an international speaker
I need to arrange my flights well ahead of time, and - by the way

airBaltic flights have very low prices until the end of next week.

:)
I'd appreciate if you'd be able to let me know before or on the 1st
of October, if I'm in or not. :)
Kindly
Kirils
On 31/07/2026 13:45, OpenFest 2026 wrote:
...
OpenFest 2026 <https://cfp.openfest.org/openfest-2026/>

Your proposal: The Four Horsemen of the Privacy Apocalypse
Hi!
We have received your proposal “The Four Horsemen of the Privacy
Apocalypse” to OpenFest 2026. We will notify you once we have had
time to consider all proposals, but until then you can see and edit
your proposal at
https://cfp.openfest.org/openfest-2026/me/submissions/Y8Z7TW/
<https://cfp.openfest.org/ openfest-2026/me/submissions/Y8Z7TW/>.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions!
The OpenFest 2026 organisers

Full proposal content:
*Proposal title*: The Four Horsemen of the Privacy Apocalypse
*Abstract*: Privacy in Europe is undergoing a structural shift
toward proactive systems of identity verification, communication
governance, environmental sensing, and data infrastructure control.
This talk examines four converging mechanisms driving this
transition: age verification frameworks that bind access to
verified identity; ongoing EU-level proposals around inspection of
private encrypted communications under the guise of child safety;
expansion of ubiquitous physical-world surveillance through
biometric systems, and mobile inference; and the accelerating
impact of AI systems that transform public data into inferential
and generative models with limited provenance guarantees. Together,
these developments suggest a move away from privacy as a default
property of digital systems toward privacy as a conditional,
regulated state contingent on compliance with layered technical and
legal requirements. Using EU policy trajectory as the primary case
study, the talk argues that these mechanisms are not isolated
policy choices but components of a broader convergence toward an
"access-controlled internet," where identity, communication, and
content are increasingly mediated by interoperable governance
systems rather than open network principles.
*Notes*: 1. Opening - "Nothing to Hide" Revisited
a. "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" as
enduring political slogan b. What changed over the last 8 years?
Shift from surveillance debate to access control debate c. Privacy
no longer framed as secrecy, but as conditional permission Core
thesis: internet is becoming a permission system, not a network

What Privacy Used to Mean
a. Autonomy over data processing and interpretation
b. Ability to communicate without systemic inspection
c. Right to remain untracked in physical and digital space
d. Anonymous access as default, not exception

The Structural Shift (2018 -> 2026+)
a. From observation (surveillance) to enforcement (compliance)
b. From "data collection" to "identity verification"
c. From passive tracking to active gatekeeping
d. From technical capability to legal obligation

Identity Layer - Age Verification
a. UK Online Safety Act enforcing age assurance for access to

content b. EU digital identity frameworks enabling cross-platform
verification
  * Facial age estimation, ID checks, financial verification

systems
      * Anonymous access increasingly treated as risky
 4.
Communication Layer - Chat Control
a. EU proposals for scanning private communications, including

encrypted contexts (chat-control) b. "Safety obligations" and
Online Safety Bill (so-far failed) attempts to backdoor encrpytion

Environment Layer - Ubiquitous Physical Surveillance
a. CCTV + facial, gait recognition expansion in public space
b. EU border systems (biometric entry/exit, travel tracking)
c. Mobile location inference, telecom metadata, transport,

"smart city" infrastructure linking identity
    d. Movement data becomes continuous identity signal rather than
discrete events

Content Layer - AI Systems and Information Collapse (worldwide)
a. Web data ingestion into training pipelines
b. Re-identification and inference from aggregated datasets
c. Synthetic content flooding original human content in a

self-degrading feedback loop

Unification - The Four-Layer Stack - supported by the EU Data

Act a. Identity: who you are (verification systems)
    b. Communication: what you say (chat inspection pressure)
    c. Environment: where you are (sensing systems)
    d. Content: what is created (AI generation + training loop)
    e. Data becomes governed infrastructure

Convergence Pattern
a. Different legal systems, shared architectural direction
b. Regulation drives interoperability of identity systems
c. Platform liability shifts enforcement onto infrastructure

providers

Closing - Redefinition of Privacy
a. "Nothing to Hide" is now an access requirement
b. The internet will become verified, inspectable, and

attributable
*Language*: en
powered by pretalx https://pretalx.com

Core mailing list -- core@openfest.org
To unsubscribe send an email to core-leave@openfest.org

Re: Your proposal: The Four Horsemen of the Privacy Apocalypse