The right to privacy is one of the most important provisions of the US constitution, and fundamental to everyone’s ability to live freely, and follow their dreams. However, with social media and cloud based storage becoming ever more and more prevalent in our culture, issues of online privacy trust, and safety have emerged as one of the key challenges of our day. What seemed simple a generation ago, is now a highly nuanced and complex issue that includes technology, common sense, law enforcement, and personal responsibility.

With the rise of these new storage and communication tools, the consequences of privacy issues are not just more severe, they’re long-lasting. It’s not just the privacy of adults that’s in question, but that of our children, that could continue impact them long into adulthood.

One of the most important, and complicated of these privacy concerns is the issue of online child sexual abuse material, or CSAM for short. CSAM is created when illegal media (images, videos, text, speech, etc.) that exploits or is harmful to children is stored or transmitted using often secure or encrypted technology. It’s the emergent challenge of protecting children, while also preserving the privacy of well-meaning adults, that led us to discover The Heat Initiative, and its Founder and CEO, Sarah Gardner.

Under Sarah’s leadership, the Heat Initiative has launched a multi channel campaign to pressure Apple, and eventually other technology providers as well, to do the right thing - to implement policies and technologies to help eliminate harmful sexual abuse material from their platforms, and to bring the perpetrators of this type of sex trafficking to justice. If you watched the NFC championship game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Detroit Lions, you may have seen some of the first volleys of this campaign:

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This episode would not have been possible without the amazing team at Bryson Gillette. Bryson Gillette is a California and Washington, D.C.-based, minority-owned, intentionally diverse strategic communications and public affairs firm dedicated to serving the needs of its clients and delivering results. We are a mission-driven organization that partners with organizations, companies, candidates, and individuals fighting to make the world more just, safe, healthy, and prosperous for all. Click here to learn more.