Alexander Kopsch
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Year 2 Student – 2022 Intake – Cohort 4 I come from an interdisciplinary background in Anthropology (B.A., M.A.) and International Development (M.Sc.). My undergraduate degree was completed at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and both my postgraduate degrees were at the University of Bristol. Prior to starting this PhD, I worked for nine months in charity market research. My main research interests revolve around indigenous communities in Ecuador and their use of Information and Communication technologies (ICTs). Specifically, I am interested in exploring the security risks, practices, and challenges that arise when indigenous groups use ICTs to protest. |
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PhD Project |
Cybersecurity at the edge: Researching the privacy and security dimensions of indigenous cyberactivism in Ecuador The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) by Ecuador's indigenous activists leads to new security and privacy risks. While increasing visibility and connectivity, ICTs also enable the government to monitor, censor, and target these groups online. Privacy-enhancing tools (PETs) see little uptake in these contexts, as designers lack local views. This research will explore how PETs are appropriated or reconfigured to support indigenous cyberactivism in Ecuador. My methods will revolve around ethnographic fieldwork in Ecuador.The outcome of this work will be a set of design recommendations for PETs that are tailored to the needs of indigenous protesters. It will also contribute to the under-researched field of privacy and cybersecurity experiences in Latin America. Supervisors: Professor Richard Owen (Bristol) Dr Marvin Ramokapane (Bristol) Dr Andrés Domínguez Hernández (Turing Institute) |