Crypto Parties and the Creation of Anonymity and Privacy

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F48546054%3A_____%2F21%3AN0000046" target="_blank" >RIV/48546054:_____/21:N0000046 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/hjk/article/view/1783" target="_blank" >https://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/hjk/article/view/1783</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Crypto Parties and the Creation of Anonymity and Privacy

Original language description

Increasing awareness of surveillance practices over the past decade led users to learn about tools to protect their privacy and security in the digital realm. There is a huge knowledge gap between experts and hackers who are able to use complex tools and many citizens who feel overwhelmed and lost. In this contribution, I am taking a look at the practice of ›Crypto Parties‹ which promises to reduce this knowledge gap and spread better anonymity and security practices. Crypto Parties (CPs) are an interesting phenomenon because they present a glob-ally decentralized movement in which citizens come together and learn about internet safety and how to counter dataveillance. So far, not much research has engaged with this practice and little is known about this small but ongoing activist movement. This short paper introduces Crypto Parties as a relevant site in which knowledge about anonymity is created and spread. The following section gives an overview about the implementation of Crypto Parties. I am presenting the decentralized movement that emerged in 2012 and organizes events until today. In the second section, I am giving a brief introduction into my methods of participant observation of Crypto Parties in Germany. This study is based on participant observation of three Crypto Parties and corroborated by attendance of other meetings where I have held informal interviews with people involved in organizing Crypto Parties as well as follow-up emails and the analysis of documents that were publicly accessible. In the last two sections, I zoom in on two aspects of Crypto Parties. I argue that CPs actively try to counteract the ev-er-present hierarchies between experts and laypeople. I also argue for understanding CPs as a distinct political practice even though participants rarely talk about politics proper.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_ost - Miscellaneous article in a specialist periodical

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50601 - Political science

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2021

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Hamburger Journal für Kulturanthropologie

ISSN

2365-1016

e-ISSN

2365-1016

Volume of the periodical

neuveden

Issue of the periodical within the volume

13

Country of publishing house

DE - GERMANY

Number of pages

6

Pages from-to

511–516

UT code for WoS article

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EID of the result in the Scopus database

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