Mastodawn

I'll be updating the Big Ass Data Broker Opt-Out List sometime over the next four days! If you have pull requests or email suggestions (with BADBOOL) in the subject line. Please send them now or forever hold your peace (until the September update).

✨Yael Grauer ✨5d ago

yay i got some data i requested! boo it didn't have any useful info. is there a German word for this?

✨Yael Grauer ✨Aug 20

Tilde Lowengrimm Aug 20

After @redqueen, I'm once again available for work under capitalism. There are some things that I'm very good at, but they aren't always well-expressed by the way we tend to write job descriptions and resumes. Just because a position puts the words "product" or "management" next to the spectrum of privacy, security, trust & safety, or compliance doesn't mean that's a role where I'd be most effective. I think this might be because I am not just an individual contributor or a manager. My strength is in working with peers (not subordinates) and facilitating effective happy teams without needing authority.

I communicate, build relationships, and connect experts. Working with technical specialists, I facilitate planning & coordination, getting teams to work cohesively towards a common goal. I combine broad & occasionally deep technical expertise with empathy & compassion. I build bridges, see the big picture, reduce busywork for those around me.

I'm passionate about the life-improving potential of technology as a bicycle for the mind and beyond. But I also understand tech's potential to surveil, control, and misdirect. I know that the benefits of the things we make cannot be shared widely and equitably unless the most vulnerable among can rely on the integrity of their tools. I choose to build things which are respectful, trustworthy, and safe enough to be used by everyone.

Relationships across an organization let me bring in the right person at the right time, which frees those people from having to keep track of everything that's happening. When action depends on expertise from a variety of domains — work which needs input from product, engineering, marketing, legal, and so on — I translate those experts' perspectives effectively, and help the group develop a plan which everyone can commit to.

With a team of specialists like engineers, I help create plans by asking the right questions to elicit the insights and concerns that people already know but might not have express and factored in. I juggle goals, priorities, and requirements from management, customers and engineers to ensure that we're working on the right thing, and that everyone understands where we're headed.

I understand my field. I have worked with journalists, activists, and queer people. I have seen and read about a great many ways that things can go wrong, and I keep abreast with the latest research. I recognize the potential for abuse, leaks, breaches, or liability before we build them, and help implement the best-known mitigations which fit with our designs.

Most of all: I establish trust with the people around me. I learn about potential obstacles and challenges and from within & without and help deal with them before they become problems so that the people I work with have the room to work on the things they're best at rather than paperwork or logistics.

Show thread

✨Yael Grauer ✨Aug 17

@hopeconf link to slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10FJzafbgDjZmsDHb33RJAVs6zdh31eBioCG8nP7PtKk/

I also meant to include my work email:
Yael.grauer@consumer.org 2/2

Copy of HOPE 19 - Yael Grauer - Back to Basics: Building Resilient Cyber Defenses

Hello and welcome to BUILDING RESILIENT CYBER DEFENSES (But Make It Garden). Back to Basics: Building Resilient Cyber Defenses But make it garden Yael Grauer HOPE 19 ️

Google Docs

✨Yael Grauer ✨Aug 17

Thanks to everyone who came to my @hopeconf talk! After the talk someone pointed out that phones at protests are often confiscated as evidence in case of arrest; something to keep in mind when deciding whether or not to bring your phone. 1/2

✨Yael Grauer ✨Aug 17

Stephen 🐈 🇨🇦Aug 16

I just saw @yaelwrites 's talk on security w/ a gardening metaphor at HOPE and it was adorable (and very good!)

✨Yael Grauer ✨Aug 16

Cyd Aug 16

Interested in what Cyd is, how it works, and other Lockdown Systems projects? We gave a talk at HACKERS ON PLANET EARTH! Check it out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnbwTlT-DP0 @micahflee @redshiftzero @yaelwrites

Claw Back Your Data With Cyd (HOPE 2025)

YouTube

✨Yael Grauer ✨Aug 16

If you can’t make my talk today at 4 Eastern, catch the livestream at https://hope.net/littletheatre.html!

And if you’re here, Little Theatre is not in the program map but is just down the stairs and to the left. (40.7237305, -73.7947650)

✨Yael Grauer ✨Aug 15

Cyd Aug 14

The collective that writes my code will be speaking at Hackers on Planet Earth this weekend in NYC! And check out their new project, the ICE Detention Map https://lockdown.systems/cyd-at-hackers-on-planet-earth-the-ice-detention-map-and-the-lockdown-systems-collective/

Cyd at Hackers on Planet Earth, the ICE Detention Map, and the Lockdown Systems Collective

This weekend, most of the Lockdown Systems collective will be at Hackers on Planet Earth, a hacker conference in New York City. We'll be giving a talk and a workshop called Claw Back Your Data From Big Tech With Cyd. We'll also be tabling – we have adorable stickers for sale.

Lockdown Systems

✨Yael Grauer ✨Aug 13

This week I'm heading out east to give a talk at HOPE on Saturday, August 16th at 4PM in the Little Theatre. Details here: https://schedule.hope.net/hope16/talk/PZQKEY/

Back to Basics: Building Resilient Cyber Defenses for Multiple Use Cases HOPE_16

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.

website	https://yaelwrites.com
pronouns	she/they