Heather Burns is a digital law specialist. she research, write, publish, consult, and speak extensively on internet laws and policies, most specifically those that affect the crafts of web design and development. She is working with WordPress since 2008 and designing websites since 1997.
Her talk was on ‘Protecting the Web from Political Uncertainty’. She said in the UK, as a result of the Brexit referendum, designers and developers face losing the legal basis for the freedom of personal movement as well as the freedom of the movement of data which has facilitated the very creation of the digital industry. In the US, the incoming (as of this writing) Trump administration threatens instability on a scale which has spurred many developers, including Matt Mullenweg and many Automatticians, to publicly pledge not to participate in the creation of databases of individuals which could be used to target them for unthinkable actions.