Description: In the past few decades the world has been dramatically transformed by technology. People have significantly evolved in how they interact with each other and the world; a side effect of this evolution is the drastic change in personal privacy. Private citizens, corporations, and governments all have different ideas on what privacy means and what information should be respected as private. Typically citizens don’t realize their expectations of privacy are falsely held, or more accurately that they have very little privacy left. Regarding privacy, decades have gone by without any action to protect an individual’s privacy against entities buying, selling, storing, and using your private data. Policy can take years to enact, and the minimal legislative action happening leans toward protecting special interest groups who have great political sway.
Action needs to be taken. Policy needs to be created allowing businesses to operate while allowing individuals to keep their information private. In the 2013 Montana Legislative Session Daniel Zolnikov, with the support of Eric Fulton, worked to introduce comprehensive legislation to protect the privacy of the citizens of Montana. Daniel Zolnikov and Eric Fulton will talk about the ideas behind the bill, the process of drafting and introducing legislation, presenting the bill before committee and the public testimony process, and the politics of why the bill ultimately died. The speakers will end the talk with lessons learned and thoughts on how to effectively pass future privacy legislation.
Eric Fulton (@Trisk3t) is a specialist in information security research and network penetration testing who regularly speaks on his research and work. In his spare time, Eric works with local students to provide hands-on security training, conducts independent security research on interesting projects, and occasionally works on legislation affecting privacy and technology. Eric currently works for SubSector Solutions which provides information security services and training.
Daniel Zolnikov (@DanielZolnikov) is a State Representative for Montana. As a 26 year old Representative, Daniel is one of the few legislators who even remotely understands the threats and concerns of the collection of personal information. He spent his first session working to fill a policy vacuum where privacy and politics meet the road. Daniel sponsored multiple bills, including two pieces of privacy legislation. The first bill would have created the Montana Privacy Act. The second bill, which was signed into law, prevented law enforcement from obtaining cell phone location information without a warrant. For the sake of transparency, he uses his Facebook page www.facebook.com/danielzolnikov to post his votes. Daniel received his undergraduate degree from the University of Montana where he earned 3 business majors in Information Systems, Marketing and Management. As a Montanan, Daniel enjoys the finer things in life including shooting guns, fishing, and fighting tyranny.
