"I lead research on Mozilla's Advocacy team. In 2021, that means I've led technical explorations into TikTok's algorithm and policies, collaborations with investigative journalists into how big tech enforces its policies, and helped with ongoing research into what YouTube users think about the recommendation algorithm. Currently, I'm investigating the privacy of various Android apps in order to document how and when these apps share data with third parties, by intercepting mobile traffic as it flows in and out. I'm excited by the kinds of innovative, technical methods we're using in our research, which powers the team's advocacy. Big tech platforms are massively resourced and changing all the time, so our research requires creativity, persistence, and a clear vision of the kind of internet we want to see."
Becca Ricks (she/her) is a researcher, programmer, and artist whose work aims to bring a feminist lens to the development of computational systems. She is a Senior Researcher at Mozilla Foundation, where she studies and advocates for greater public oversight and access to AI/ML systems. Previously, she was a 2017-2018 Ford-Mozilla Open Web Fellow hosted at Human Rights Watch. She also worked as a design technologist in the tech industry, prototyping with emerging technologies. Becca holds a master’s degree from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP). Becca is a founding member of tendernet, an intersectional feminist collective exploring critical and speculative design practices around AI.
"In July we launched the findings from our 10-month long investigation into YouTube's algorithm—an algorithm that drives more than 700 million hours of watch time every single day. It was the largest-ever crowdsourced investigation into YouTube, was covered by hundreds of outlets around the world, and ultimately led to policy changes from YouTube. Now, I'm working on an update to the extension that powered that investigation, called RegretsReporter, with an eye towards how we can mobilise thousands more people to participate in our second investigation into ways that people can express control over their interactions with YouTube's algorithm."
Brandi Geurkink is Senior Manager at Mozilla Foundation where she leads Mozilla’s advocacy work on countering disinformation and tech platform accountability. Brandi’s work combines open research and investigative methods to examine how internet platforms shape our reality and push for changes in policy to create a healthier and more just internet. Her background is in campaigning and community organising on a variety of issues like poverty relief, tenants' rights, democratic dissent, money reform, and internet freedom.
"I’ve been working on Mozilla’s elections-related work – exploring how big technology platforms tackle the spread of mis- and disinformation and other harmful content, and the lack of transparency into whether those measures are effective. I’m also diving into the issue of personalised pricing – where an AI system is using characteristics unique to you in order to charge a different price to each individual, usually in a discriminatory way."
Jon Lloyd is the Head of Campaigns at the Mozilla Foundation. He has been involved in campaigning, fundraising and marketing for the last 16 years, and is one of the world’s top digital campaigning and fundraising experts, having honed his craft in digital-first organisations. Jon has a true global outlook, having worked in advocacy and raised tens of millions of Pounds for human rights, healthcare, digital rights, education, hospitals, and community organisations. He currently lives in London, UK, via New Zealand and Canada.
“I’m currently working on a campaign calling on Slack to empower its users with a feature that would allow them to block abusive and harassing communication. The effort is bringing together colleagues from previous work at UltraViolet, an organization that fights for feminist change, and Coworker.org, which advocates for workers’ rights, in a powerful movement. It’s an important moment to shape the conversation about how we can empower people with stronger user controls. Ultimately everyone should be able to protect themselves from communication or materials they don’t want to receive.”
With more than a decade of experience in grassroots organizing, digital campaigning, issue advocacy and electoral politics, Kaili Lambe is passionate about leveraging the power of communities for positive change. Given her background working toward gender equity, and her degree in women and gender studies from Dartmouth College, she is particularly interested in the intersection of feminism and internet health issues. She lives in Evergreen, Colorado, and enjoys exploring mountain trails with her dog, skiing, and what can best be described as adventures in the kitchen – vegetarian cooking and baking experiments.
“*Privacy Not Included has always been the sassy little project that could. In 2021, PNI became a team of two when we hired Misha Rykov as my researcher and teammate. Misha and I have grand plans to expand *Privacy Not Included in 2022 and beyond. Our dreams include making consumer privacy more accessible to all people, expanding the types of stories we tell, and, most importantly, having lots of fun. If we make a few companies angry along the way, well, that just means we’re doing our job.“
During a rather unplanned stint working on my Master's degree in Artificial Intelligence, I quickly discovered I'm much better at telling stories than writing code. This discovery led to an interesting career as a journalist covering technology at CNN. Continuing down my random life path, I moved from CNN to digital media activism, where I helped pioneer the creative use of digital storytelling to try and leave the world a little better than I found it. That eventually brought me to Mozilla, where I created and now lead our *Privacy Not Included work. This means I’m a consumer privacy advocate working to help people better understand issues around privacy, security, and artificial intelligence in their consumer technology. Just exactly what I thought I’d be when I grew up (not really, life is random, I love it!). I live on top of a mountain in Colorado with my two sassy dogs and one silly cat. When I'm not working on *Privacy Not Included, I'm probably taking a bath, reading a book, watching football, or thinking about how the world needs more storytelling.