Tech Policy Grind

This week Meri chatted with Class 4 Fellow Ellen Magallanes on her experience in privacy and at the Wikimedia Foundation. Ellen is a dual-qualified US-Australian attorney and a Senior Counsel at the Wikimedia Foundation. Privacy law, like all the best rabbit holes, was something she fell into and never looked back. Now, Ellen furthers her interest in privacy with tech law advocacy in both of her homes: Australia and the US.  They dig into her move from Australia to the US, her work at Wikimedia, and the challenges and wonders of tech policy advocacy and product counseling. Then, Ellen reflects on her journey to her current role and highlights the importance of experimenting to discover one’s passion and interests. She also covers taking the CIPP/US exam from IAPP. Find and connect with Ellen Magallanes on LinkedIn here! Resources mentioned in the episode: The Model Minority Myth in Tech [S3E05] Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neill  Dare to Lead by Brene Brown  Braving the Wilderness by

We are back with our next fellow highlight episode. Class 4 Fellow Meri Baghdasaryan sits down with Ashkhen Kazaryan, a tech policy expert and a former Foundry Fellow.  Ashkhen manages policy projects related to free speech, content moderation, surveillance reform, and the intersection of constitutional rights and technology. Currently, she is a Senior Fellow at Stand Together on the Free Speech and Peace team. She leads the development and execution of Stand Together’s strategy to defend free speech online and to promote a culture of pluralism. Prior to that, she was a Content Policy Manager on the Content Regulation team at Meta. She covered content policy for North and Latin America, as well as leading on policy for Section 230. Before joining Meta, she was the Director of Civil Liberties at TechFreedom where she managed coalition-building and hosted The Tech Policy Podcast. Ashkhen is regularly featured as an expert commentator in news outlets, including CNBC, BBC, FOX DC, Newsy, Politico, Axios, The

Welcome back to the Tech Policy Grind! Today, class is in session for Health Privacy 101 with Jordan Wrigley and Kirk Nahra. In May 2022, the leaked SCOTUS decision overturning Roe v. Wade shocked the nation. About a month later, the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case officially overturned the constitutional right to abortion. Last year, we talked with EFF’s Eva Galperin on the Tech Policy Grind about how technology could amplify surveillance on women’s reproductive health in a Post-Dobbs world. Around the same time, The Federal Trade Commission, the White House, civil society, industry, and lots of other stakeholders got to thinking - what is the role of digital privacy and security in protecting women from being prosecuted by their state or local governments for receiving life-saving care? In this episode, we revisit that subject, under a broader lens. Reema sits down with Kirk Nahra, partner and co-chair of the privacy and cybersecurity practice at Wilmer Hale, a large international law

Welcome back to the Tech Policy Grind! In this episode, we hit the road once again for our North American tour of some major tech policy conferences. This time, we head to the ICANN76 Community Forum in Cancún, Mexico, the Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) 2023 Conference in Denver, Colorado, and the IAPP Global Privacy Summit in Washington DC. The ICANN76 Community Forum is the 76th ICANN Meeting since ICANN's inception in 1998. Reema chats with Cindyneia Cantanhêde, a Brazilian data privacy attorney based in Sao Paulo, who was at the conference as an ICANN Fellow (along with Reema). The WiCyS Conference brings together women in cybersecurity to dig into substantive, technical conversations on what's going on in the field. But it also is a space for women (who only represent 25% of the cybersecurity industry) and allies to connect and get inspired about retention and advancement in the field. Reema chats with Lynn Dohm, Executive Director of WiCyS about the conference's history and goals. Then, she talks to

Last season we started a tradition of featuring old and current Foundry Fellows in an episode spotlight. In this episode, we bring this tradition back with Class 4 Fellow Lama Mohammed kicking off the Foundry Fellows Highlight series for Season Four, covering her career path and DIY creation of a her own "tech policy major" at American University! Class 4 Fellow and Tech Policy Grind host, editor and producer Reema Moussa sits down with Lama during the IAPP GPS Conference. You've heard her on the show before, but we get into her background. She spends her 9-5 as a Senior Associate at the Glen Echo Group. Glen Echo Group is a Washington, DC-based public affairs and public relations firm specializing in technology policy. Reema chats with Lama about her journey, including how Lama embarked on her technology policy career pathway while at AU, her work for The Foundry and All Tech Is Human, her hopes for the future and more! You can connect with Lama on LinkedIn. Check out the Foundry on Instagram, Twitte

Welcome back to the Tech Policy Grind Podcast by the Internet Law and Policy Foundry! In this episode, Class 4 Fellow Lama Mohammed chats with new Foundry Fellows Ekene Chuks-Okeke, an LLM student in the Law, Technology & Entrepreneurship program at Cornell Tech, and Lili Siri Spira, the Social Media and Campaign Marketing Manager for the TechEquity Collaborative — a nonprofit focusing on socioeconomic inequities in the tech industry. They get into their backgrounds, induction to Foundry as new Foundry Fellows, experience at State of the Net and more! You can connect with Ekene (@ipcybrmediagrl) and Lili (@lilisirispira) on Twitter or LinkedIn and view all the great work they will bring to the Foundry by following us on social media or subscribing to our newsletter. Resources Referenced: All Tech Is Human Class Five State of the Net Recap To learn more about the Foundry, check out ilpfoundry.us and follow us on social media (LinkedIn and Twitter @ILPFoundry). If you’d like to support the show,

We're back with Part 2 of our State of the Net series, and this week we're chatting kids privacy and what's going on with Section 230! In this episode, Reema and Joe talk digital privacy and safety issues for children with Natalie Campbell (Internet Society). Then, Reema chats with Matt Perault (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) and Yaël Eisenstat (Anti-Defamation League) on Section 230 and the current landscape of platform liability. In case you missed last week, for the past (nearly) two decades, the State of the Net Conference has served as the convening point for tech policy professionals to chart a course forward for the tech policy decisions of the future. We were there to chat with tech policy experts on their takes on the latest digital issues of the day. Section 230 shields platforms (like Google, Meta, and others) from liability for the unlawful content their users may post. Yaël and Matt dig into the recent oral arguments heard before the Supreme Court and legislative developments on

  We're back with new episodes every Thursday for Season 4 of the Tech Policy Grind! And if you couldn't tell, we're really excited about what's to come. To kick off the season, we hit the road and headed to the State of the Net Conference, where tech policy professionals have convened annually for nearly two decades to collectively look towards all that lies on the horizon in the wild world that is tech policy. For Part 1 of our conversations at State of the Net, we sit down with Alan Davidson (NTIA), Bertram Lee Jr. (Future of Privacy Forum), and Patrick Lin (Latham & Watkins). Alan Davidson sits down with Reema to talk about NTIA's efforts to connect Americans to the web. Bertram Lee Jr. talks about the intersections of AI legislation and privacy principles. Rounding out this episode is a conversation with Patrick Lin, who digs into the fascinating issues emerging in copyright and digital rights around generative AI. Make sure to tune in next week for Part 2 of our State of the Net conversati

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

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 foundrypodcasts@ilpfoundry.us. 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

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 doe

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 wou

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. 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: f

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 Republic

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 that will address some of privacy, trust and safety challenges in the immersive technology space.  Meri chats with Mana, Raktima and Tom, who respectively represent teams at the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place among the 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: Mana’s team (Video Presentation) Raktima’s team (Video Presentation) Tom’s team (Video Presentation) 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 w

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 of cyber insurance, cyber hygiene for lawyers, and spyware. 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: foundrypodcasts@ilpfoundry.us If you'd like to support the show, consider donating to the Foundry; you can do so here. Resources Mentioned: Scraping Suit Hinges On When LinkedIn Discovered Violations [Law360]

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 wa

How should tech policy guide engineers during development? Fellow Rebecca Kilberg chats policy implementation with technologist Jeremy Avnet.

In this episode, Foundry Fellow, Dyllan Brown-Bramble sits down with Gabrielle Hibbert, a Fellow at the Decentralized Future Council and Hillary Brill an Adjunct Professor and Senior Fellow Institute for Technology Law & Policy at Georgetown Law to discuss the work of the Decentralized Future Council, the future of Web3 law and policy, and why early-career professionals should get up to speed on it.

Reema and former Foundry Fellow Patrick Kyhos chat about his career in cyber public service and the evolution of the Foundry.