Security and privacy are often treated as interchangeable. They’re not.
In fact, when taken to their extremes, such goals can work against each other. Strong security controls create more surveillance, more logging, and more visibility into user behavior. Extreme privacy measures can limit monitoring and detection to the point where genuine threats slip by unnoticed.
In this keynote, I’ll unpack the tension between these two goals, drawing on more than two decades of hands-on experience in privacy and cybersecurity, including my work building Anonym.OS in 2005, the first fully autonomous, anonymizing (and highly secure) LiveCD operating system. That project taught me that you can’t just max out privacy and security sliders. The real skill is in knowing where to set them for the environment, the risk model, and the people you’re protecting.
We’ll explore:
How certain security practices can erode privacy
How extreme privacy measures can undermine security
Decision frameworks for balancing the two without blind spots
What “secure and private within reason” looks like in real-world systems
Whether you build products, run infrastructure, or set policy, this talk will give you a clearer view of how these objectives intersect, where they collide, and how to align them with clear, realistic goals.
Because the truth is, security without privacy is control. Privacy without security is fragile.
And neither is acceptable on its own.
Bio:
Taylor Banks is a cybersecurity strategist, educator, and builder with more than 25 years of experience protecting critical infrastructure, governments, and global enterprises. He co-created Anonym.OS, the first fully autonomous, anonymizing, and secure, privacy-focused LiveCD, which debuted at ShmooCon in 2006. Taylor has trained over 10,000 security professionals worldwide, worked with organizations from the United Nations to the CIA and FBI, and delivered talks at DEF CON, ShmooCon, and other global conferences. His work focuses on the practical intersection of privacy, security, and operational resilience.
