What is the role of the library in the information age — is it a repository for the great art, a building with free web access, or — as was the initial intention — a place for learning and research? Can it adapt to changing times while staying true to its original mission? Jonathan Zittrain is the director of the Harvard Law School Library, and the author of “Why Libraries (Still) Matter.”  “Libraries are often the places of last resort to find that thing that nobody bothered to hang onto, but that they later regret losing,” Zittrain said Tuesday on Boston Public Radio. “That’s kind of the Norway seed bank — that after the apocalypse we can reboot everything courtesy of a handful of the libraries of last-resort, of which the Boston Public Library is also thought of [as] one.”

Source: Harvard Law’s Jonathan Zittrain Defends Libraries — Yes, Even The BPL | WGBH News

“There’s a growing sense within China that widely used VPN services that were once considered untouchable are now being touched,” said Nathan Freitas, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard and technical adviser to the Tibet Action Institute.

Source: Chinese Hackers Circumvent Popular Web Privacy Tools – The New York Times

Blockchain Workshop runs June 15-16 at the Millennium Hotel in London and hosts a series of talks covering emerging blockchain payment networks, regulatory challenges, financial inclusion and more. The event is organized by Constance Choi, founder of blockchain law firm Seven Advisory, as well as two Harvard law professionals: Law Lab Co-director John Clippinger and Berkman Center for Internet & Society Research Fellow Primavera De Filippi.

Source: Blockchain Workshop to Educate Financial Industry About Digital Currency – Bitcoin Magazine

On Thursday, Susan Crawford, co-director of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society and a member of the de Blasio administration’s Broadband Advisory Task Force, wrote a piece on Medium that took a somewhat skeptical view if Governor Andrew Cuomo’s broadband policy, which involves a $500 million investment to be matched by Internet providers, to realize his goal of providing access to high-speed Internet access to all New Yorkers by 2018. While Crawford writes that the plan has lots of “potential” and highlights its “scale and ambition,” she expresses some worry that the state may not have the “aggressive leadership” necessary to ensure that the Internet markets are affordable and the new service available to consumers is affordable.

Source: City tech officials lay out ‘ubiquitous connectivity’ vision | Capital New York

“In the context of laws that are very broad, the power to selectively prosecute those that expose things that are critical of the administration’s behavior, while not prosecuting — or prosecuting for a very limited offense — those who leak in a way that supports the administration … is an abuse of power itself,” said Yochai Benkler, a professor at Harvard Law School and co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. The fact that Snowden remains a fugitive after spurring changes in the law “says more about us and our system than about him,” Benkler added. It’s “a profoundly distorted view of American democracy,” he said.

Source: Victorious Snowden stuck in exile | TheHill

as data breach fatigue inured you to headlines about high-profile cyberattacks? It’s time to wake up. This week, we’ve learned about a new string of high-profile cyberattacks, this time aimed at accessing the personnel records of U.S. government employees. The breach of the Office of Personnel Management, which allegedly originated in China, was apparently uncovered during attempts to step up cybersecurity.

Source: The IRS data breach hearings were actually useful.

Condemnation of Broad Surveillance ‘Growing’Cybersecurity expert Bruce Schneier, a fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, told us that he agreed with Snowden that public opinion has shifted regarding surveillance and privacy.”There is widespread condemnation of broad government surveillance of populations,” Schneier said. “It’s tempered by fear, of course, but it’s there. And it’s growing.”

Source: Edward Snowden Cheers Victory in Op-Ed on Surveillance – Network Security on Top Tech News

Meanwhile, Jonathan Zittrain — a law professor at Harvard — has called for Facebook to declare itself an “information fiduciary,” much like lawyers and doctors do already. In exchange for, say, a tax break, the site would promise to offer a depersonalized, unfiltered News Feed experience, among other things.

Source: If you use Facebook to get your news, please — for the love of democracy — read this first – The Washington Post

It’s unlikely that Facebook or Google will give users the chance to encrypt chat that take place on their own servers to protect it from access by the company or by a court order, says cryptologist Bruce Schneier, a fellow at Harvard Univerity’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.  “​​It’s a good thing, but it’s privacy around the edges,” Schneier says of Facebook’s encryption option. “Facebook doesn’t want you to do encrypted chat on its site that they can’t read.”

Source: Facebook Email Encryption Another Blow to Surveillance – US News

Schneier says we’re living in a “golden age of surveillance” and it happened because of computers, smart phones, security cameras and cash registers. He warns that we exude data that paints an intimate picture of who we are. Author of “Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World.”Bruce Schneier spoke at the Commonwealth Club of California. He’s the CTO of Resilient Systems and a fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center.

Source: Security guru Bruce Schneier on ‘Data and Goliath’ | Minnesota Public Radio News