The Responsibility of Open Standards in the Era of Surveillance

International audienceThe core infrastructure of the Internet is defined by interoperability between code-bases: The `rough consensus and running code' of open standards at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). However, there are a number of powerful critiques of open standards. First, there is a widespread failure of many core standards in terms of security and privacy, and even concerns of subversion. There is an even more substantial critique that standards are simply moving too slowly in the face of rapid innovation. However, we'll argue that engagement with open standards is the best way for privacy-enhancing technologies to gain widespread adoption