Annie Machon Keynote Speaker

Annie Machon was an intelligence officer for MI5, the UK’s domestic Security Service. During that time she was responsible for investigating political and terrorist targets, before resigning to help her former part­ner and col­league, David Shayler, blow the whistle on the crimes, incompetence and lack of accountability of the spies. As the story made head­lines around the world, they were forced to go on the run around Europe and live in exile in France for 3 years.

Draw­ing on her var­ied exper­i­ences, she is now a writer, media commentator, polit­ical cam­paigner, and PR con­sult­ant on a variety of intelligence-related and civil liberties issues. She has a rare per­spect­ive both on the inner work­ings of gov­ern­ments, intel­li­gence agen­cies and the media, as well as a new-found love for all things geek and the need to pro­tect digital freedoms. She is an international leader in advocating the wider implic­a­tions for the need for increased open­ness and account­ab­il­ity in both pub­lic and private sectors.

Annie published her first book in 2005, “Spies, Lies and Whistleblowers: MI5, MI6 and the Shayler Affair” in which she offers criticism of MI5 and the Secret Intelligence Service based on her observations of the two whilst in the employment of MI5. She also features regularly in international press, giving her expert insight on intelligence matters, global geopolitics, digital civil liberties and surveillance issues.

She published a second book in 2022 ‘The Privacy Mission: Achieving Ethical Data for Our Lives Online‘

In 2020 she was awarded the SA Award for Integrity in Intelligence by the Sam Adams Associates, a global group of intelligence, diplomatic and military whistle blowers.

She served four years as the European Director of Law Enforcement Action Partnership, is a director of https://worldethicaldata.org/, an organiser of the World Ethical Data Forum, and is an advisory board member of the Courage Foundation.

Annie also featured in numerous films and TV documentaries including The Culture High, Digital Dissidents, The Mole: Undercover in North Korea, Disparaitre, The Secrets of the Spies, Espionnes, and Stasi, with more coming out soon