Bill Drake's workshop on public-interest politics offered a particularly useful forum for making connections and comparing strategies among a diverse group of activists. Although fervently acclaimed by its attendees, the conference's organizing process pointed out some of the difficulties in bringing CPSR's message to a broad audience. The broader use of computer and telecommunications technologies holds great promise for individuals and society. These technologies, applied on a larger and wider scale, can fundamentally transform our lives, bringing new meanings to our freedoms to speak, associate, be left alone, learn, and exercise political power. At the same time larger and wider scale use of these technologies poses threats to the ideals of a just, free, and open society.
Personal privacy is increasingly at risk from invasion by high-tech surveillance and eavesdropping.
The expanding number of myriad databases containing personal information maintained in the public and private sectors expose private life to constant scrutiny. The Fifth Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy will assemble experts, advocates and interested people from a broad spectrum of disciplines and backgrounds in a balanced public forum to explore and better understand the definition of our rights at this crossroads of the Information Age. Participants will include people from the fields of computer science, law, business, research, information, library science, health, public policy, government, law enforcement, public advocacy, and many others.