well good evening imagine a world where
five low resolution images of your face
can determine with 91% accuracy if
you're a man
slightly less if you're a woman whether
you're gay or not and before you say you
don't care you don't judge and if you
were gay you don't care all that stuff
just remember that there are 10
countries in the world today where it's
a crime punishable by death to be gay so
think about the implications of that
technology imagine a world where Google
has a patent on an in-home device that
can detect whether alcohol is being
consumed in the house where their
smoking is going on where the curse
words are being used what the emotional
state of the occupants is they do that
by looking at your facial expression and
analyzing your voice tone where their
teeth are being brushed and if so for
how long and if so whether the water is
being left to run during the teeth
brushing and before you say you know
that's just a great way of helping me
monitor my kids remember that if they're
monitoring your kids I'm monitoring you
now I'm sure you get this all the time
why do I care about privacy I got
nothing to hide
I don't care if people see what I buy I
live this boring life and when people
say that to me I say to them well the
point is it's not just about you it's
about society and I apologize you're a
group of professionals but I'm just
gonna go through a couple these examples
cuz I find them interesting so we all
know about geofencing but there was a
case last year in Massachusetts in April
2017 has settled with the Massachusetts
AG and a firm that was putting geo
fences around reproductive health
centers around the country and targeting
women not just any women but abortion
minded women who went into those clinics
and giving them live chat offers right
to life live chat offers and no matter
where you stand on the pro-life
pro-choice spectrum many people find
that's a pretty invasive use of the
technology in home devices they know for
example where your phones sleep and so
your phones normally see you and your
partner in one place and all of a sudden
one phone sleeping downstairs and the
algorithm knows before you've told
anybody else in your life that your
relationships in trouble wearables are
we all like to make sure we get our
number of steps in but just remember
speaking of couples they know everything
that you're doing and before you say no
no we my partner I would take our
fitbit's off before we did anything just
remember by definition they know when
you're wearing them and when you're not
and when two people take them off
together they know that these people are
not stupid this value this information
has value and by the way it's not
covered by HIPAA autos they know how
much you weigh how fast you drive how
hard you brake that's a good one for
your risk tolerance and then people are
lending to you when you go to work if
you get fired
voting is for me the most alarming one
if less than a hundred thousand votes
separated the last two candidates in the
last presidential election in three
states this is not a boil the ocean
problem this is not a very difficult
problem they're talking about convincing
a relatively tiny fraction of the voters
in a very in a handful of states to
either come out and vote or stay home
and remember these companies know
everybody intimately they know who's a
racist
who's a misogynist who's a homophobe
who's a conspiracy theorist they know
the lazy people in the gullible people
they have access to the greatest trove
of personal information that's ever been
assembled they have the world's best
data scientists and they have
essentially a frictionless way of
communicating with you this is a trivial
problem it's also power and as I always
say you know Standard Oil was a powerful
corporation but it didn't know
everything about you so that's why I got
involved in 2015 I kind of got
interested in this and a friend of mine
and I his name is Rick Arnie and he's a
dad at my son's school and so we that
dads together and we started talking
about this decided I decided to do an
initiative
and after about a year and a half of
research we ended up on these three
things
transparencies for the right to know
what information has been collected
about you the right to say no control
tell the company's allowing you to tell
the companies to stop selling your
information and then just accountability
please keep my information safe and so
we spend a year and a half
researching it we spent you know six
months writing it at the end of 2017
everybody says it came together in like
two days
it's not true we spent six months
writing it we went through multiple
drafts with the Attorney General and
this is what you do you literally it's
not an e thing around he actually put a
hard copy across the desk in Sacramento
that's not my hand that's a couriers
hand but and then that was right before
Thanksgiving last last last year and
then you wait no no about a month and
you get the what's called the title in
summary from the Attorney General and
then you're legally allowed to go start
gathering signatures so January this
year we started gathering signatures and
on the left that's the actual petition
that you've got to go get people to sign
now legally we needed three hundred and
sixty six thousand signatures that's a
percentage of the last vote in the last
gubernatorial election we decided to try
to aim for five hundred seventy seven
thousand there's a you want to go over
because there's a random random count
method this is when it started to get a
little more real and not quite so much
kind of fun every week you'd get this
thing from this on the right was a
spreadsheet I would get from the
signature gathering firm you have to
hire a firm you can't do this by
yourself and it would be sort of this
list of how many signatures they'd
gotten and that's literally all I ever
saw I never saw ballots and never saw
you know petitions so you sort of have
to take them on their word and you have
to wire the money once a week now it's
publicly disclosed at that point so
you're starting to get I was trying to
get press and you can get some kind of a
private person I don't really want that
you know the parents in my kids school
kind of wondering what I was doing and
the other thing is it's just kind of
binary like you're not like getting half
a house you're either this works or it
doesn't this could all just
the you know big waste of time so so
that was sort of not so much fun then
the opposition committee got formed and
this was also not so much fun and you
know I'm I'm not a billionaire and and
and this was a still kind of when I
think about the list of companies
arrayed against us that was it that was
not not great
my personal low moment came early this
year I'd always thought that what would
happen is a billionaire would come along
and kind of adopt the initiative what
happens in California a lot of the time
as someone comes up an idea they put a
ballot measure together and then someone
comes along and says all put the money
and it becomes their initiative soars it
sort of so like the marijuana initiative
that everybody says is Sean Parker's it
was he wasn't the proponent but he gave
all the money and it became his so I
thought that's what would happen and I
actively tried to pursue that and so I
you know the Bayer had being what it is
I called someone and you know finally
got ahold of somebody and got an
appointment and went is he a very
wealthy billionaire not Sean Parker and
I had my little meeting and I gave my
pitch and at the end of it he was like
this is great and I never forget what he
said he said you're gonna be proud of
for the rest of your life you did this
and I thought great this is going well
and I said so you know will you support
me and he looked at me as like oh I
couldn't support you why and you say
well these companies are really powerful
they could really hurt my business and I
thought your business and then he looks
at me on cue and he says how's your
business doing Elster and I and I looked
at him I said how should it be doing and
he said you know these companies are not
run by nice people
he used a little more colorful phrase
than that and I on the way down the
elevator from that meeting I remember I
literally I kind of wanted to throw up I
just thought what have I done to my life
I had this idea and it was a good idea
and I'm a tiny little businessperson and
there's a little thought exercise here
if you're a business person how many
other businesses can unilaterally put
you out of business let's say you need
customers coming in the door so the
utility could but
can't really because you can go the
regulator and say he turned my gas back
on or turn my electricity back on
they're there they're targeting me
because they don't like my political
stance but there's one business who can
do that and there's no fingerprints
right so that kind of freaked me out I
didn't think it would happen I think we
have the free press I think you know any
these big search businesses or social
media companies would not do that but it
still is a possibility so I stopped
sleeping for the next couple of months
this happened and you know it wasn't
good for the people whose data was
leaked but at the same time it stopped
people asking me what I was doing with
my life people kind of like oh I get it
now and so we got our signatures in May
and California has a process where it's
a relatively new process didn't used to
be like this where if you a proponent
like me you can get your signatures but
you have a time until when you can
actually withdraw your ballot so for me
is a statutory time based on when your
ballot qualified but so for me it was
June 28th at 5:00 p.m.
and up till then I could withdraw the
ballot now presumably the reason they do
this this law is that the Legislature
will stent to step in pass a law and
convince the proponent to withdraw their
ballot the idea being that then you get
one more expensive ballot fight off the
ballot and people don't hate the
legislature as much so I started getting
calls from the legislature and this on
the left hand slide they're the person
on the left is Assemblymember Chao but
behind him his glasses on his head
that's Senator Bob Hertzberg and if any
of you know him he's a force of nature
he this is the craziest small world
story he knew my college roommate and my
best man just because he used to go on
some business retreat weekend with the
guy so I guess he you know called me to
call and figured out that I was
reasonable person so he starts calling
me and that was May I didn't honestly
think very much of it because the first
couple of conversations didn't really go
anywhere and I've got a couple of drafts
and they were sort of meaningless and
they didn't have any enforcement they
had no not
just sort of like words on paper so I
was of course as the senator turns calls
it was flight but but I got to know him
a little bit and he's a good guy
and so a week before the deadline eight
days before the deadline on Wednesday
before the Thursday deadline that's not
okay this is crazy if we're gonna do
this listen please try and I went to
that office in the middle picture
full disclosure that's a totally fake
picture we took it last week but but I
did sit in that seat and that's my
attorney right there James Harrison who
sat beside me so other than those shirts
it's probably the same expressions on
our face and we sat there for 10 hours
on a Wednesday going back and forth with
Sacramento talking and we basically came
up with a deal where we took away
certain things but we got certain things
we got the right to see all your
information we got the right to Felicia
and we got the right to changed it's a
kid opt-in from 13 to 16 and then we
pared back the writer private action so
that was Thursday when we spent a
weekend negotiating it was a crazy
weekend up till all hours with you know
different elected members on the phone
it was but on Monday morning on the 25th
we had a deal that tech would accept
that was always there was Technol one
side these guys in the middle and us on
the other
at which point my wife kicked me on the
house and said go to Sacramento you've
been working this for two and a half
years don't come back without a vote you
know a positive vote so I went up there
and I walked up and down the halls and
just kind of walked into offices and
said hey this is who I am I think you
should vote for this deal and that's an
on the right-hand side that's the night
before the vote and that's us code
counting just hoping that we had enough
votes so the next day is June 28th our
deadlines 5:00 p.m. to withdraw or not
but actually we had less than that
because we'd heard from the governor
that he was leaving for a fundraiser at
2:30 and Jerry doesn't you know he
marches to his own drummer he wasn't he
sent no messages that he was going to
stick around for this so we knew okay
that's 2:30 and then because the law
hadn't been agreed to
our deal hadn't been agreed to till
Monday morning there's a there's a rule
in California you can't vote on a bill
until it's been in print for 72 hours so
legally we couldn't actually start but
they couldn't start debating it on the
floor of the Senate until 10:40 7:00
so we had this little window to get this
thing done so on the left is a picture
that's Rick Renee was telling about he's
a fellow who helped me all the way
through and that's my wife and I and
then the middle picture is my wife and I
and some of you may know him Ashkan
Soltani he's a former chief technologist
at the FTC and he helped us all the way
through with a technological side of
things and on the right very small is
Bob Hertzberg waiting around on a Senate
floor for the time to go so we can
introduce this and of course 10:47 comes
along and we're nowhere near it because
we're in the middle of this huge fight
between the Republicans and the
Democrats over some soda tax and I mean
it was epic the Republicans storm off
the floor they call emergency caucuses
there everybody's texting me being like
we've never seen this before I mean
they're just hurling insults at each
other on the floor like you know madam
Speaker I've never seen anything like
this in all my years so I think okay
this is not going well and I don't
actually think they took it up till noon
so at this point I think I mean I you
know I I didn't know what's the thing
and then I will say when government does
act it acted quickly and the next thing
that happened which I had never really
expected if this works there we go is it
passed unanimously out of both houses
which I had not really expected to see
and it was kind of one of those moments
that we sort of send chills down your
spine as you watch the boat you know
read the name I and then after that we
went down to the governor's office and
went in and asked if we could watch him
sign ish and they looked at us knows the
actual were nice and they were like
we'll go ask like
they came back like now
so anyway went then we went back
upstairs and there's Chow in his office
finding out that was me I was sitting on
some stairs trying to write something
for the press conference but I realized
I hadn't done that and I was there when
the when the governor's office called me
to say that he'd signed it and that was
a moment I won't forget that's a real
picture my wife took that picture and on
the right with Hertzberg and you know
when that passed and realizing that you
know 40 million people wanted 8
Americans had had protections that they
hadn't had before that was a I was a
moment that I won't soon forget either
so the thing about this journey is it's
it's I feel I still feel very privileged
and and grateful to have taken and it's
an amazing journey and I'm still blown
away about how much power this country
is willing to give its citizens
you know it's an only in America story
and for those of you who are depressed
about the current state of affairs just
think - this summer in Sacramento when
the two sides came together and acted as
one and I you know the cynical side of
view says well they did it so they come
back next spring and got the law but I'm
an optimist and I tend to think it's
because they recognized that privacy is
not partisan and this is a moment in
time they wanted to not be on the wrong
side of history and this leads me I want
to just talk about two things privacy
and prosperity and closing the first
thing is that I think our great
experiment is still alive and well and
by that of course I mean democracy
because democracy is not the human
history it's not the norm right the norm
is power going to individuals and
dynasties and our democracy depends on
all of us every day trying to build it
and one of those essential building
blocks is privacy
without privacy there really isn't any
democracy and it's so essential that our
founders recognize this and so the right
to be left alone in your home and to
keep your papers to yourself and keep
your opinions and your thoughts and even
the right to keep what you know you've
done to yourself all those rights are
enshrined in the Bill of Rights because
again without that there isn't any
democracy but also without prosperity
there's no democracy we all know that
given the choice between food and
freedom we know where everybody's gonna
vote so you have these two things
prosperity and privacy the things that
be kind of me driving me quite crazy
recently is that somehow there's this
emerge this narrative that they're not
compatible that you got to have privacy
you gotta have prosperity and if you
have too much privacy I mean how many
times that people told me don't kill the
innovation engine of America we know
best
don't let the civilians come in don't I
don't let the government people come in
because they're gonna ruin our business
just leave us alone we're really smart
computer scientists and we know how to
do this and this is much too complicated
for you well I'm here to say I'm not a
buyer of that narrative I'm a
businessperson
I feel like I'm as Pro commerce as they
come and I just don't see how good
privacy isn't good business I think it
is good business and I think so the
companies that get it will do well
because I think there's a sea change
going on and I think this is where you
all come in you've chosen to devote your
lives to this area and on your shoulders
rests making sure that this essential
building block of democracy stays intact
so when you go back to work next week
remember it's not just a job
and when the complaints roll in about
you being a cost center or about the
fact that you know it's hard to comply
with these laws push back ask these
people what kind of a society they want
to live in what kind of a society they
want to leave for their kids because
remember you're not just working for
your company companies come and go but
you have an amazing responsibili
so much rests on your shoulders and I
just want to remind you it's not just a
job because if you're protecting privacy
you're protecting democracy if you're a
guardian of privacy you're a guardian of
democracy and that is the worthy estas
thank you so much
[Applause]
[Music]