Taught by Lucy Bernholz and Divya Siddarth
Digital Security and Civil Society: Course Overview from Stanford PACS on Vimeo.
This class will instruct students in the political economy of software and digital infrastructure as they relate to civil society in democracies. We will consider the role of privacy, anonymity, free expression and free association in democracies and examine the digital tools and practices that enable these freedoms. The class consists of three interwoven themes:
- The role of civil society in democracies
- The political economy of digital tools and their influence on society
- Individual and collective digital security
The course is structured as a series of seminars, with homework assignments that involve using various “mass market” tools for digital security and privacy. Students will take an active role in shaping the curriculum for the class by both using the tools and teaching their peers to do so.