Tech platforms can’t be trusted. Oligarchs and billionaires want you to keep giving your data to their Big Tech companies for free so they can sell it and manipulate you into believing nonsense. In this talk, the Lockdown Systems collective will introduce Cyd, their open source desktop app that makes it easy for people to reclaim control over their data from Big Tech. Giving users actual control over their data is challenging when dealing with hostile, enshittified tech platforms like X and Facebook. Cyd bypasses all of that though by putting the user in the driver’s seat: it runs on the user’s own computer, from their own IP address, and it works by automating a web browser on their behalf - and sometimes relying on APIs, when they’re available, free, and don’t suck. It doesn’t share any access to your accounts or your data with the Lockdown Systems collective. Attendees will learn how Cyd works under the hood, how you can use it, and how you can contribute to building tools that challenge the dominance of Big Tech.

The Lockdown Systems Collective will be holding a hands-on workshop about Cyd, the open source app that helps you claw back your data from big tech companies. This workshop will walk you through the following: installing Cyd, saving your data from X and/or Facebook, deleting what you want from those platforms, and migrating your data to Bluesky/Mastodon. If there’s interest, this workshop will also cover getting started with Cyd development environment, discussion about how Cyd’s black magic works, and discussion about the worker-owned Lockdown Systems Collective.

In spite of novel cybersecurity threats, digital security advice has remained largely unchanged in recent years. In fact, a lot of advice in response to high-profile attacks doesn’t actually address risks people are most likely to face. This talk will analyze several high-profile digital security concerns, whether viral advice to address it would have been effective, and what steps could be taken - both before and after the issue arises. You will hear of lessons learned from years of auditing and updating Security Planner, a digital security guide that provides customized plans based on responses to a few survey questions. The presentation will further delve into ways to segment digital security advice so that it’s personalized to the individual, their devices, their technical capabilities, and the type of risks they’re likely to face.