About
The fundamental right of privacy for all human beings underpins free society, yet today this right is challenged by technological advances that open vast new opportunities for the aggregation and analysis of personal data.
We believe that by starting at the municipal level, we as individuals can have an impact and help re-establish meaningful privacy expectations that can inform and inspire the work of others. Seattle Privacy formed in March 2013 and incorporated as a non-profit corporation in the state of Washington in 2014.
Vision
Worldwide legal protections of privacy for all people, where ever they live, whatever their citizenship, against increasingly totalitarian government surveillance programs and intrusive and cynical corporate data collection.
Mission
To urge and empower the City of Seattle to take advantage of Seattle’s leadership in technology and progressive politics to lead the United States to restore and protect all people’s right to privacy.
Board of Directors
| David Robinson President David is a technical writer, programmer, and retired professor with an English Ph.D. from the UW. A year in East Germany left him obsessed with corrupt government and the erosion of privacy. When the United States tried to shut down Wikileaks, he ran a mirror site. David is currently a Tor Project volunteer and an evangelist for secure and free communication technologies. He is the author of “Under Construction: Nine East German Lives.” Twitter: @jdormansteele |
| Phil Mocek Vice President Phil is a longtime privacy and transparency activist. Twitter: @pmocek |
| Christian Severt Secretary Christian is a systems engineer, IT Director, and concerned Seattle resident. He served in the US Navy administering classified Command, Control, Communications, Computers & Intelligence (C4I) systems. Christian has also managed complex information systems & Protected Health Information (PHI) data with an understanding of data storage and sharing among government and private applications. Twitter: @XanaduRegio |
| #6 Treasurer Kevin Orme is a local software professional, member of the WA State Bar and Pacific NW native who has served on the King County Civil Rights Commission in the past, is a card-carrying member of the ACLU, and thinks the Bill of Rights are not just ‘advisory principles’ — they are LAW. |
| Jan Bultmann Chair Jan is a technical editor, Pacific Northwest native, and longtime civil rights activist. Jan became interested in the intersection of privacy, anonymity, technology, and civil liberties while sharing and protecting confidential information in the context of recovery. Twitter: @JanJBultmann |
| Al Richardson Vice Chair Al is a community and union organizer who recently relocated to Seattle from Buffalo, NY. He served as an executive member of the Buffalo Chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, and as the local lead for the national Fight for 15 campaign lead by SEIU. |
| Adam Shostack
Adam is a technologist, entrepreneur, author and game designer. He’s a member of the BlackHat Review Board, and helped found the CVE and many other things. While at Microsoft, he drove the Autorun fix into Windows Update, was the lead designer of Microsoft’s SDL Threat Modeling Tool v3 and created the “Elevation of Privilege” game. Adam is the author of “Threat Modeling: Designing for Security,” and the co-author of “The New School of Information Security.” Web: adam.shostack.org |
| Christopher Sheats
Christopher is a systems administrator, activist, and web kid. Since common forms of entertainment are boring and the world needs changing, Christopher volunteers his time for organizations and causes such as the ACLU of Washington, Seattle Privacy Coalition, City of Seattle Community Technology Advisory Board, Tor Project, Techno-Activism 3rd Mondays, and Wikipedia. Christopher organizes SPC’s surveillance self-defense classes and loves educating people about privacy, information, and technology. Twitter: @yawnbox |
| Giri Sreenivas
Giri is the CEO and co-founder of Privacy Labs. He has worked on security and mobile projects at startups and large companies. Giri has enjoyed working on a wide range of projects, from developing trusted computing systems for the intelligence community to building consumer mobile experiences on Android. Most recently, he was VP/GM of Mobile at Rapid7 after they acquired Mobilisafe where he was founder/CEO. Twitter @giri_sreenivas |
| Paul English
Paul English is CEO of PreOS Security Inc. Paul is a Board member for the League of Professional System Administrator, a non-profit professional association for hte advancement of the practice of system administration from 2015 through 2017. Paul has Bachelors in Computer Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute obtained in 1998. And Paul has been a UNIX & Linux system administrator and wearer of many other IT hats since 1996. More recently he has managed a few sysadmins while still racking the occasional server. In 2016 he ventured into a firmware security startup to help sysadmins keep their systems safe from new threats. |
| Will Scott
Will is a web hacker. He grew up in Seattle, and holds a Ph.D. from the UW Computer Science Department focused on Networks and Security. Will has helped to organize Open Seattle and TA3M, and researches Internet censorship, privacy preserving web applications, and cloud security. Twitter: @willscott |
Founders
| Jacob Appelbaum |
| Jan Bultmann |
| Lee Colleton |
| Phil Mocek |
| David Robinson |
| Allegra Searle-LeBel |
Allies
We are grateful to SURF Incubator for in-kind donation of our mailing address and meeting space, and to Riseup for the creation and maintenance of communications systems for nonprofits. Allies and partner organizations include the following:
- The Privacy Project
- Tech Activism, Third Mondays (TA3M) – Seattle
- Oakland Privacy
- Oregon Privacy
- Restore the Fourth – Los Angeles
- Stop LAPD Spying
- Stop Big Brother