Digital Life Initiative | Ethics | Policy | Politics | Quality of Life JAN - APRIL 2021 |
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DIGITAL LIFE INITIATIVE Director's Welcome | Spring 2021 During these times of grave challenge, I've been energized by the dedicated focus of the DLI community. We've proudly seen DLI Fellows embark on exciting new chapters in their careers; we've welcomed a dynamic array of speakers to the DLI Seminar; and, in compelling publications, we've addressed some of the hardest ethical questions facing digital societies. Much more to report: stay tuned for a special edition next month, showcasing the prolific output of DLI Critical Reflections and introducing a phenomenal new crew to the DLI team! – Helen Nissenbaum |
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UPCOMING EVENTS Digital Life Seminar Thursdays 12.00 - 1.15pm, with the familiar format of presentation and Q&A: April 22 | Amy B.Z. Zhang April 29 | Andre Esteva May 06 | Meg Young MORE INFO 3rd Workshop on Obfuscation Convening participants around the concept and practice of obfuscation in digital societies: May 04 | Vernissage (Launch) May 07 | Full day of online talks MORE INFO |
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HARVARD DATA SCIENCE REVIEW Individual Acceptance of Using Health Data for Private and Public Benefit: Changes During the COVID-19 Pandemic Co-authored by Frederic Gerdon (University of Mannheim), Helen Nissenbaum (DLI Director), Ruben L. Bach (University of Mannheim), Frauke Kreuter (University of Maryland), and Stefan Zins (Institute for Employment Research) How do privacy attitudes toward data sharing shift in times of crisis? The survey results show how rationally adaptive people are in their judgments of appropriate data practices. While the COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating for individuals, global health, and the economy, it has created unprecedented opportunities for data scientists. The stunning breadth of data, collected through new systems installed to manage the pandemic, offers a richly textured window into a transformed world (e.g., COVID-19 Data Exchange, 2020). These new systems repurpose data from familiar services and platforms, such as phone companies, operating system providers, and social media platforms, and deploy them in the service of efforts to increase information about people’s movements and predict the spread of COVID-19 (e.g., Apple, 2020; Google, 2020). New smartphone applications track patterns of actions relevant to the spread of disease, and people are donating data from other digital devices. Predictably, and understandably, privacy researchers have thrown up red flags concerning these developments, given they will likely persist long after immediate threats pass. CONTINUE READING |
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MIT TECHNOLOGY PRESS This Tool Lets You Confuse Google’s Ad Network By Lee McGuigan, DLI Alum (2019 - 2020) AdNauseam's stealth test is one of the best guerrilla tactics to protest surveillance advertising, at least until regulators protect us from the surveillance of Big Tech. Many of the digital devices and platforms people use daily are built to make users transparent to the companies who want to predict, influence, and evaluate user behavior. This surveillance advertising has major social costs. Just for starters: it erodes privacy, perpetuates forms of discrimination, and siphons money away from the public-interest journalism that democracies need to survive. Lawmakers have not acted decisively to mitigate these costs. Some activists, frustrated by the inability of regulators to effectively constrain Google’s actions, have taken matters into their own hands. READ MORE |
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NEW YORK TIMES You Had Me at ‘Has Never Filed for Bankruptcy’ By Karen Levy, DLI Faculty Affiliate Tinder is trying to make it easier to obtain data on potential partners. That could create more problems than it solves. What does it mean to gather “verified” data on potential romantic partners? There’s something to be said for the idea that intimacy is based on having discretion to share information with others — on deciding how much of yourself to reveal to someone, and when, and how — as trust builds in a relationship. Match Group — which owns dating and hookup platforms including Tinder, OKCupid and Match.com — is trying to make it easier to obtain data on potential partners. The company announced this month that it would help users run background checks on potential dates. READ MORE |
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iSCHOOLS CONFERENCE Data & Privacy in a Quasi-Public Space: Disney World as a Smart City By Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo (University of Illinois) and Yan Shvartzshnaider (DLI Alum,York University) Best-paper winner at iSchools Conference: Disney World serves as a useful case study to explore the normative and institutional information governance challenges associated with such pervasive technologies as MagicBand, facial-recognition, location tracking systems and more. Walt Disney theme parks implement emerging technologies before other consumer or public spaces and innovates new uses for existing technologies. In contrast with public contexts with representative governance, Disney World is both an engaging prototype and a functioning quasi-public smart city, wherein a private actor controls ICT adoption and governance. As cities increasingly partner with private corporations in pursuit of smart systems, Disney provides a glimpse into the future of smart city practice. CONTINUE READING |
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HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW How to Hold Social Media Accountable for Undermining Democracy By Yaël Eisenstat, DLI Alum (2019 - 2020) The problem with social media isn’t just what users post — it’s what the platforms decide to do with that content. Far from being neutral, social media companies are constantly making decisions about which content to amplify, elevate, and suggest to other users. The storming of the U.S. Capitol Building by a mob of pro-Trump insurrectionists was shocking, but it was not surprising to anyone who has followed the growing prominence of conspiracy theorists, hate groups, and purveyors of disinformation online. While the blame for Donald Trump’s incitement to insurrection lies squarely with him, the biggest social media companies—most prominently my former employer, Facebook—are absolutely complicit. They have done this without bearing any responsibility for how their products and business decisions effect our democracy. CONTINUE READING |
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YALE LAW JOURNAL (FORTHCOMING) Democratic Data: A Relational Theory For Data Governance By Salomé Viljoen, Postdoc Fellow at Cornell Tech's DLI, and NYU's Information Law Institute This article explores how data is increasingly a ‘currency of egalitarian justice,’ and how and why legal theories for democratizing data production matter for projects of egalitarian reform. Data governance law—the legal regime that regulates how data about people is collected, processed, and used—is a subject of lively theorizing and several proposed legislative reforms. Different theories advance different legal interests in information. Some seek to reassert individual control for data subjects over the terms of their datafication, while others aim to maximize data subject financial gain. But these proposals share a common conceptual flaw. They miss the point of data production in a digital economy: to put people into population-based relations with one another. This relational aspect of data production drives much of the social value as well as the social harm of data production and use in a digital economy. CONTINUE READING |
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ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTING A Call for Scholar Activism Co-authored by Meg Young, DLI Postdoc Fellow; P. M. Krafft, Oxford Internet Institute; and Michael A. Katell, Alan Turing Institute An activist orientation requires scholars to see research as action, to build capacity, and to contribute to broader social movements. Alvaro Huerta (2018) defines a “scholar-activist” as both a bridge and conduit between academic institutions and the communities in which they work, putting the resources and privilege of the former into service for the latter toward the ultimate object of advancing social, racial, and economic equity. This definition clarifies several things about what scholar-activism means. First, scholar-activists think of their institutions, research, and platforms as resources that can be directed. Second, scholar-activists intentionally direct these resources toward communities outside academia. Third, even as some career incentives in academia are at odds with this goal, scholar-activists commit to social justice. As a small research collective of early career scholars, we have been inspired by the scholar-activist mode of engagement over the past two years. CONTINUE READING |
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MELBOURNE LAW SCHOOL Jake Goldenfein Following his time as a DLI Postdoc Fellow (2018 - 2020) in New York City, Jake returned to Australia to join the prestigious Melbourne Law School as a law and technology faculty member. He is also serving as Associate Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. LEARN MORE |
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UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA Lee McGuigan During his DLI Postdoc Fellowship (2019 - 2020), Lee received an Assistant Professorship at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, where he'll further his groundbreaking research on the history and political economy of advertising, media, and information technology. LEARN MORE |
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UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND Ido Sivan-Sevilla Ido has moved on from his DLI Postdoc Fellowship (2019 - 2020) to fulfill an exciting new role as an Assistant Professor at UMD's iSchool. He will continue to research digital risk governance by applying a comparative public administration approach to study policy design and enforcement, while tracing how private corporations fulfill regulatory vacuums. LEARN MORE |
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YORK UNIVERSITY Yan Shvartzshnaider Congrats to Yan, our former DLI Visiting Fellow (2019 - 2020), on accepting a dynamic Assistant Professorship at York University's Lassonde School of Engineering. He will also direct the Privacy Rhythm research lab to develop methodologies and privacy-enhancing tools that incorporate socially meaningful conceptions of privacy. LEARN MORE |
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BERGGRUEN INSTITUTE Yaël Eisenstat Yaël completed her DLI Visiting Fellowship (2019 - 2020) and was invited to join the talented cohort of Berggruen fellows, focusing on what the public square and democratic debate look like in the digital age. She is also a researcher-in-residence at Betalab, a new Betaworks program to fund early stage startups that aim to 'Fix The Internet'. LEARN MORE |
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APPLE Conghzeng Song We're delighted that Congzheng, a DLI Doctoral Fellow (2020), has begun his new role at Apple working on machine learning privacy During his time with us, he delivered a compelling Digital Life Seminar on Measuring the Unmeasured: New Threats to Machine Learning Systems. WATCH SEMINAR |
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3RD WORKSHOP ON OBFUSCATION May 4 & 7, 2021 | Registration Still Open Organized by DLI and TU Delft The 3rd Workshop on Obfuscation will take place online on May 7, 2021 – a full day of online talks and gatherings. The aim of the workshop is to convene participants around the concept and practice of obfuscation in digital societies. We welcome researchers, scientists, policy makers, public-interest developers and coders, journalists, activists, artists and other interested parties to discuss obfuscation in environments and conditions of asymmetrical power and information. The workshop will open with a vernissage on May 4, 2021, where we will welcome all participants and release artworks and media from invited speakers. READ MORE & REGISTER |
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Spring 2021 Digital Life Seminar Thursdays, 12.00 - 1.15pm FULL SCHEDULE DLI Media Channel Missed out on previous seminars? WATCH HERE Industry Affiliates Program Join our mission in shaping the future of digital societies by promoting ethical and political values, and quality of life for all. READ MORE |
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Critical Reflections Analytical Commentary and Research READ MORE More DLI Info Jessie Taft (jgt43@cornell.edu) Michael Byrne (mjb556@cornell.edu) DLI WEBSITE @dlicornelltech FOLLOW US ON TWITTER |
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