Interview with keynote
‘What I want is people to reflect more’
Interview with Karin Spaink
Lars Witteveen – 16 January 2012
Karin Spaink (54) was the co-founder and chairwoman of Bits of Freedom (an organisation that deals with digital civil rights in the Netherlands). She still is the chairwoman of the jury of the Dutch Big Brother Awards. Spaink is also a writer and columnist. The focus of her work is on internet, technology, health care and digital rights. At BOBCATSSS, an annual international information management conference, Spaink will deliver the keynote speech on privacy on the internet.
A variety of subjects feature in your work. Is there a topic that characterizes your work?
‘I have the tendency to focus on a particular subject and to completely switch to another topic after two years. What I want is people to reflect more. That is why I try to portray different aspects and angles of an issue. At the beginning of the internet era, I found the newspaper reporting on this new medium unaccustomed. That is why I decided to write, a year long, only about internet. I am still kind of a schoolteacher, I often think there is more to an issue than meets the eye. I wish I had the ability to write more transcending and less down to earth articles. Certain matters just shock me. That is why it really surprises when noone writes about them. There are too many subjects that are left untouched.’
Social issues play an important role in your work. Do you have any political ambitions?
‘In the past, I believed strongly in politics. However, national politics nowadays has become less irrelevant. Most of the decisions are taken by the European Union. A lot of our laws are based on European Union guidelines. I am not so sure anymore what to do with politics. Recently to my surprise, I was elected into one of the District Councils of Amsterdam. A political party appointed me campaigner to help attract voters, however some voters preferred me in the District Council and voted for me. I declined to mount my seat in the District Council. My column in the newspaper offers me a much broader stage.’
Privacy is the Cornerstone of Personal Safety is the title of the keynote speech you will be delivering at BOBCATSSS. Could you tell us something about the speech?
‘A lot of policymakers have simple ideas concerning technology. They believe that with automation all their problems will be solved. On the contrary, it gets more complicated. The idea is: we build something good, and then we surround it with a layer of protective devices. Then everything is alright. Unfortunately, that is not how the world functions. The whole system has to be safe. At BOBCATSSS, I would like to draw attention to the importance of hackers. People view hackers as troublemakers, but without them we would not have had internet! We need hackers now because there is a great number of companies that use digital data. They investigate whether the data is safely stored.’
What is the link between privacy and personal safety?
‘The health sector increasingly uses digitalized medical equipment, such as pacemakers and insulin pumps. Manufacturers are unaware that the codes of medical equipments can be cracked. A lot of people wonder why anyone in their right mind would tamper with medical equipment. However, if it is possible, there are always people who would not hesitate to do just that. Period.’
