RightsCon Tunis 2019

Global activists and human rights organizations know that data privacy and security should never be taken for granted. In practice, though, we often default to commercial closed source tools because they are so easy to use. And then there is the lingering question: are open-source alternatives really any better? This session will help human rights organizations walk through the seemingly complex world of open-source software to understand what they need to do to make and use more open-source tools. This session invites human rights organizations from around the world to discuss the considerations and challenges of using and developing open-source tools. In this fishbowl setting, participants will have the opportunity to engage with and learn from thought leaders, developers, human rights activists and technologists about the ins and outs of starting and sustaining open-source projects to: - Debate the ethical and security imperatives, misconceptions, and responsibilities for open source tools to “do no harm.” - Share practical lessons learned from using & building open source software for human rights work - Deep dive on secure data sharing - We want to hear about your needs, current solutions, hacks, and concerns about secure, distributed data sharing.