ACLU Hires a Tech Specialist To Keep Tabs On 'Secure User Experiences'

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is tackling the issue of online security, hiring an internet security technologist, Daniel Kahn Gillmor. The ACLU argues that the importance now placed on “user experience” must also include the issue of digital security, answering questions that include:

• Will it be possible to communicate confidentially with your doctor, your business partner, your mate, or your friend?
• Will you know for sure who you are talking to?
• Can you be confident that no one else is listening?
• What assurances do you have that when you send someone a message, they will actually get it, and it will not be tampered with along the way?

From Gillmor’s point of view, the freedoms we enjoy — free speech and freedom of the press, for instance — rely heavily on our ability to interact without unauthorized intrusion.

“Gillmor’s