{"id":59291,"date":"2014-09-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-diversity-week-keynote-sept-30\/"},"modified":"2014-09-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-09-16T00:00:00","slug":"uri-diversity-week-keynote-sept-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2014\/09\/uri-diversity-week-keynote-sept-30\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 Diversity Week keynote, Sept. 30:"},"content":{"rendered":"

Government and Corporate Intrusion into the Lives of Citizens<\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 September 16, 2014 \u2013 Heidi Boghosian, a writer, civil libertarian and radio show host, will talk about the disturbing increase in government and corporate surveillance in a keynote speech at the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s 18th annual Diversity Week.<\/p>\n

Sponsored by 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Multicultural Center and the 溏心vlog免费B站 Honors Colloquium, Boghosian will talk about \u201cSurveillance or Self Determination: Can Democracy Exist in the Age of Google, Comcast and the NSA?\u201d on Tuesday, Sept. 30 at 7:30 pm in Edwards Auditorium. The talk is free and open to the public.<\/p>\n

\"CoxThe presenting sponsor of the entire 溏心vlog免费B站 Honors Colloquium is Cox Business. Thanks to the generosity of Cox Business, an iPad mini will be raffled off at each Colloquium. You must attend the lectures to be eligible to win.<\/p>\n

In her book, Spying on Democracy: Government Surveillance, Corporate Power and Public Resistance, Boghosian documents the increase in surveillance of ordinary citizens and the danger it poses to our privacy and civil liberties and to the future of democracy.<\/p>\n

Boghosian discusses in her book how technology is being used to monitor people based on their associations, movements, purchases, health histories and political beliefs.<\/p>\n

She shows how corporations and government agencies mine data from sources as varied as surveillance cameras and unmanned drones to iris scans and medical records while combing websites, email, phone records and social media to sell to third parties, including U. S. intelligence agencies.<\/p>\n

Government and corporate spying is on the rise.<\/p>\n

In 1975, Senator Frank Church, chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, revealed on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press\u201d the power of the U. S. government to engage in domestic spying:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States government has perfected a technological capability that enables us to monitor the messages that go through the air,\u201d Church said. \u201cThat capability at any time could be turned on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left such is the capability to monitor everything \u2013 telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Citing a need to protect American citizens following 9\/11, the administrations of former president George Bush and President Barack Obama have collaborated with Congress and the Supreme Court to accelerate the rise of the Big Brother surveillance state, making Church\u2019s forecast a reality, says Melvin Wade, director of the Multicultural Center.<\/p>\n

While President Bush authorized the National Security Agency, or NSA, to engage in warrantless wiretapping of the fiber optic cables that control international trafficking of emails, telephone calls, video chats, websites and bank transactions, President Obama oversaw the expansion of the NSA into a weapon for global information control, incorporating the use of cyber attacks, biometric identification, unmanned drones, spying on allies and government secrecy. The NSA has compelled Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, AOL, YouTube, Skype and others to transfer to it massive amounts of private information, Wade says.<\/p>\n

Since the leak of top-secret documents by Edward Snowden, citizens have become aware of the extent to which our government and corporations are partnering with each other to build the mining, aggregating, interpreting and selling of data from daily personal transactions into a largely unregulated multi-billion industry, Wade says.<\/p>\n

Boghosian earned a bachelor\u2019s degree from Brown University, a master\u2019s degree from Boston University and a law degree from Temple University Law School.<\/p>\n

Formerly the executive director of the National Lawyers\u2019 Guild, she is now the executive director of the A. J. Muste Memorial Institute, which advocates for nonviolent social change. She also co-hosts the weekly civil liberties radio show Law and Disorder.<\/p>\n

Diversity Week is an annual event at 溏心vlog免费B站. This year, the goal is to educate people about the struggle for diversity, equity and community in government and corporations, higher education, the schools, the workplace and the civil rights movement.<\/p>\n

Among the events:<\/p>\n