Hacking History: Reviewing 38C3's Contributions to the History of Digital Inequalities
by Nina Neuscheler, January 2025
At the end of December 2024, the 38th Chaos Communications Congress (38C3) took place in Hamburg, Germany. Organized by the Chaos Computer Club (CCC), the international hacker congress discussed under the motto "Illegal Instructions" topics around technology, society and utopia. During the annual congresses of the CCC, much can be learned about the objects of computer history and, above all, about its protagonists and digital cultures. The good news for those who could not attend 38C3: Some of the lectures are available as online recordings on the CCC media page. The following three talks are warmly recommended, because they are particularly relevant to questions of the history of digital inequalities.
1) Meredith Whittaker: Feelings are Facts: Love, Privacy, and the Politics of Intellectual Shame
Meredith Whittaker, a former Google employee, has long been a critical observer of digitization and the (non-)protection of privacy. For example in her role as chair of the Signal Foundation, the foundation behind the open-source messenger service of the same name. In her talk, she provides an overview of the fundamental changes in the tech industry over the past roundabout 30 years. This includes the "crypto wars" of the 1990s, her perspective on the commercialization of the Internet, and the developments towards the progressive containment of privacy and personal rights by the tech industry. Whittaker's counter-proposal to these problems is a return to making digital services responsive to users rather than corporate interests. She advocates strengthening and expanding encryption. In short, she calls for a reconquest of the digital world in the name of privacy, data protection, and intimacy. As an activist, a theorist, and ultimately a contemporary witness, Whittaker provides inspiring impulses for the historiography of the digital, and this lecture is a great opportunity to gain insight into her thoughts and work.
2) Erlern: Escaping Big Brother (or Your Ex) - counter surveillance for women's shelters
Violence in relationships is not limited to the domestic sphere and is by no means a new phenomenon. The digital arena of the 21st century "is proving to be particularly tricky for victims," according to the description of Erlern's talk. Digital surveillance, with its seemingly practical benefits for individual security (such as automatic location tracking or video surveillance), can easily be turned into its opposite: intrusive control over other people. Women are disproportionately affected by domestic violence and are often digitally dependent on their partners. It is only a small step from a man setting up and keeping up to date his partner's laptop and cell phone to digital control over the partner. Gendered attributions of technological knowledge, which are more likely to be attributed to men than to women, thus promote control and - ultimately - violence in partnerships. Based on working with women's shelters, Erlern describes the digital threats women face from their ex-partners and/or the fathers of their children. The gender dimension of digital violence, which is highlighted here in a frightening and powerful way, is a consequence and expression of digital inequalities. In my dissertation project, I will further explore the historical roots of the contemporary forms of digital violence outlined by Erlern.
3) Lilith Wittmann: Hacking Jails
How the penal system in Germany became digital and how digital products play a role in the everyday life of prisoners has so far been overlooked by historical research. This topic brings together several "classical" levels of research in digital history: What technology and criteria are used to record and "manage" people in the prison system? How is their access to the digital world structured and regulated, and what forms of digital participation are open to them? Is there such a thing as a digital culture specific to the social space of prison?
In her talk, Berlin-based hacker Lilith Wittmann exposes data security gaps in German prison software. As a result of these gaps, sensitive personal data of inmates was accessible for years - until Wittmann's hack. She also shows how overpricing (sometimes illegal for unlicensed open-source programs) makes it difficult for prisoners to access digital products, and how this severely limits their ability to communicate with the world outside prison. One reason for this is that a single company in Germany has a de facto monopoly on so-called prison media systems.
Wittmann has also obtained hundreds of issues of prison magazines through Freedom of Information Act requests. Due to the nature of the prison system, these have not been easily accessible in the past. However, prison magazines are a unique source of insight into life behind prison walls and reflect the issues and perspectives of prisoners. Lilith Wittmann has published over 300 issues of the prison magazines on https://knastarchiv.de/#/, creating a unique, openly accessible archive. The hacker's work demonstrates how digital activism can become a valuable basis for academic research, and how political and academic concerns can go hand in hand.