Digital Life Initiative | Ethics | Policy | Politics | Quality of Life                                 SEP 2021 

 DIRECTOR'S WELCOME 

Fall Greetings

As we charge into the new semester, we look back on our summer highlights, and forward to DLI 2021/22 with a dynamic group of postdoc and doctoral fellows, visiting researchers and practitioners, and faculty, united in our commitment to ethics, law, politics, and quality of life in digital societies. Although we're taking a break from our weekly seminars, stay tuned for announcements about upcoming DLI events!                                                                                                                                                                                                                     – Helen Nissenbaum

 

Introducing the Phenomenal DLI Cohort of 2021/22 

 DLI COMMUNITY 

Ero Balsa

Postdoctoral Fellow

 

Privacy Engineering & Obfuscation: 

Ero Balsa enters his second year with the Digital Life Initiative, where he continues to examine the design and analysis of privacy enhancing technologies, and technologies that enable users to contest asymmetries of power and knowledge (such as obfuscation tools). Ero completed his PhD at the University of Leuven, and an MSc in Telecommunication Engineering at the University of Vigo.

 

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 DLI COMMUNITY 

Meg Young

Postdoctoral Fellow 

 

Government Tech & Accountability: Beginning another academic year as a DLI postdoc fellow, Meg Young will apply ethnographic and design methods to understand government use of information technologies on-the-ground. She completed her doctorate in the Information School at the University of Washington, having received an MSc in Information Science and a BA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Michigan.

 

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 DLI COMMUNITY 

Sunoo Park

Postdoctoral Fellow

 

Cryptography & Security: Sunoo Park researches computer science and related law and policy issues, with some of her most recent work focusing on how to use cryptography for accountability and for deniability in secure systems. Before completing a JD at Harvard Law School, she received her PhD in computer science at MIT, and BA in Computer Science at the University of Cambridge.

 

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 DLI COMMUNITY 

Thomas Krendl Gilbert

Postdoctoral Fellow 

 

​Machine Ethics & Epistemology: Thomas Krendl Gilbert's research interests lie in the sociology of scientific knowledge, the sociology of culture, and intellectual history. Prior to receiving a PhD in Machine Ethics and Epistemology at UC Berkeley, Thomas completed his MPhil in Political Thought and Intellectual History at Cambridge University. 

 

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 DLI COMMUNITY 

Emanuel Moss

Postdoctoral Fellow

 

Algorithmic Accountability: Emanuel Moss conducts ethnographic research on issues of fairness and accountability in AI systems. In addition to DLI, he is a researcher for the AI on the Ground Initiative at Data & Society and a research assistant on the Pervasive Data Ethics for Computational Research project. He recently completed his PhD in cultural anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center.

 

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 DLI COMMUNITY 

Phillip Ellison

Civic Innovation Fellow 

 

Intergovernmental Relations & Tech Policy: Phillip Ellison works for the Office of the New York City Public Advocate, focusing on community engagement and policy at the intersections of data, technology, accountability, transparency, and human rights. While attending Tufts University, he merged his study of the liberal arts and tech entrepreneurship at the Gordon Institute of Engineering Management.

 

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 DLI COMMUNITY 

Gary Johnson

Civic Innovation Fellow

 

Municipal Tech Engagement: Before joining Cash App as Head of Community Partnerships, Gary Johnson was the Director of Strategy and Operations at the Mayor’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer, working on the NYCx industry engagement program for breakthrough and emerging technology. He holds a BA degree in Political Science and Government from Hampton University.

 

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 DLI COMMUNITY 

Ellen Abrams

Visiting Research Fellow 

 

Science & Technology Studies: Ellen Abrams is a historian of science and mathematics, specializing in science and technology studies and American cultural history. After completing her BS in Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern University, she earned her PhD and MA from the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University.

 

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 DLI COMMUNITY 

MC Forelle

Visiting Research Fellow 

 

Technology, Culture & Law: MC Forelle is a Cornell Presidential Doctoral Fellow, examining the intersections of technology, culture and the law. She completed her PhD in communication at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. MC has degrees in film production from Boston University and in media, culture and communication from New York University.

 

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 DLI COMMUNITY 

Maggie Jack

Visiting Research Fellow 

 

Global Tech & Labor: Maggie Jack is a qualitative information science researcher, and currently a postdoc on the NSF-funded project “Creating Work/Life” with a team spanning Syracuse University and University of California, Irvine. She holds a PhD in Information Science from Cornell University, an MPhil in the History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge, and a BA in History and Science from Harvard College.

 

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 DLI COMMUNITY 

Nathaniel Lubin

Visiting Research Fellow

 

Digital Engagement & Misinformation: 

Nathaniel Lubin's work is centered on developing novel approaches to improving online discourse, building measurement tools, and combating misinformation. Before serving as Director of the Office of Digital Strategy at the White House, he was appointed Director of Digital Marketing at Obama for America in 2012. Originally from New York, Nathaniel is an honors graduate from Harvard University.

 

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 DLI COMMUNITY 

Emrys Schoemaker

Visiting Research Fellow 

 

Global South & Digital Tech: Emrys Schoemaker is an advisor and researcher at Caribou Digital, scrutinizing the use of digital technologies in the Global South, and the economic, social and political transformations they lead to. He holds a PhD in International Development from the London School of Economics, as well as a Masters in Conflict Management from the Department of Peace Studies at Bradford University.

 

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 DLI DOCTORAL FELLOWS  

Introducing Our Talented DLI Doctoral Fellows

 

Fostering mutual learning and interdisciplinary exchange, the DLI Doctoral Fellowship Program engages PhD students in systematic inquiry into ethical and political implications of digital technologies. Fellows will focus on societal issues relating to the technical projects in which they are immersed, and the intellectual approaches needed for tackling them in an informed and rigorous manner. For the 2021/22 academic year, we are very excited to introduce the talented PhD students joining our community of technologists, humanists, social scientists and legal scholars.

 

Emily Tseng

Information Science

 

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Marianne Aubin Le Quere 

Information Science  

 

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Ilan Mandel

Information Science

 

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A. Feder Cooper

Computer Science

 

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Yiran Zhao

Information Science 

 

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Margot Hanley

Information Science 

 

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 DIGITAL LIFE INITIATIVE  

Responsible AI, Law, Ethics and Society Summer Course

 

Through June and July, around 40 students from three universities (Cornell Tech, Technion and Tel Aviv University) and multiple disciplines (Data Science, Computing and Law) came together to learn about Responsible AI. The unique course, taught both virtually and in-person, comprised nine 4-hour workshops – each covering one Responsible AI element (e.g., fairness, privacy and transparency) in the context of one domain (eg., healthcare, transportation and finance) – and combining Data Science, Law and Ethics perspectives. Developing AI responsibly is neither a one-person task nor a single-discipline team job but requires diverse background professionals with strong multidisciplinary dialogue skills – the course's predominant learning objective. The crew was also transatlantic: Prof. Helen Nissenbaum (Cornell Tech, DLI Director), Prof. Niva Elkin-Koren (Tel Aviv University, Law), Prof. Avigdor Gal (Technion, Data Science), Dr. Karni Chagal-Feferkorn (University of Ottawa, Law), and Shlomi Hod (Boston University, Data Science), with DLI Doctoral Fellow Margot Hanley as the TA. – By Schlomi Hod (pictured above).

 

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 NEW YORK CITY BALLET 

New York City Ballet Collaborates with DLI Research Fellow on Campus

 

With his own research sitting at the intersection of dance, technology and history, DLI Research Fellow Michael Byrne was thrilled to partner with NYCB's New York Choreographic Institute in activating Cornell Tech's Tata Innovation Center and Bloomberg Center. These dynamic campus environments served as prompts for choreographers Sophie Laplane and Alysa Pires – both quarantined in Scotland and Canada respectively – to devise site-specific works with dancers from New York City Ballet. In the physical absence of Laplane and Pires, technology proved the essential mediatory interface for making, presenting unique challenges during the choreographic process, while also inviting creative and collaborative affordances. 

 WATCH VIDEOS 

 ARTICLE: HOW THE DANCES WERE MADE 

 

 CRITICAL REFLECTIONS 

Critiquing Google’s Proposed Privacy Sandbox 

By DLI Alum Lee McGuigan (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) and DLI Director Helen Nissenbaum (Cornell Tech)

 

The following remarks were submitted in July 2021 to the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in response to a call for comments on Google’s proposed Privacy Sandbox by the CMA’s Antitrust Division.

 

We offer these comments in response to the CMA’s call for public consultation, specifically addressing the potential “imposition of unfair terms on Chrome’s web users,” as a result of Google’s proposed Privacy Sandbox. 
Exploitative data practices establish an acutely uneven playing field between consumers and the companies that execute them. Google’s Privacy Sandbox, which represents a significant change to Chrome, is a case in point. Despite being presented as “privacy first,” the so-called “Privacy Sandbox” exposes Chrome's users to significant privacy risks. Proposed design safeguards do not mitigate the most severe forms of these privacy risks.

 

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 BIG DATA & SOCIETY 

Design Choices: Mechanism

Design and Platform Capitalism

By DLI Alumni Salomé Viljoen (Columbia University), Jake Goldenfein (University of Melbourne), and Lee McGuigan (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

 

The article outlines the normative and ideological history of mechanism design, and describes, how, in the platform context, it has become a tool for producing information domination, distributing social costs in ways that benefit designers, and controlling platform participants.

 

Mechanism design is a form of optimization developed in economic theory. It casts economists as institutional engineers, choosing an outcome and then arranging a set of market rules and conditions to achieve it. The toolkit from mechanism design is widely used in economics, policymaking, and now in building and managing online environments. Mechanism design has become one of the most pervasive yet inconspicuous influences on the digital mediation of social life. 

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 MILSTEIN PROGRAM 

DLI Joins Summer Program in Technology & Humanity 

 

DLI Affiliated Faculty Deborah Estrin and DLI Research Fellow Michael Byrne joined Mor Naaman, William Leon, Juliet Weissman, and Niti Parikh to launch the inaugural in-residence Milstein Summer Program at Cornell Tech. An immersive and collaborative learning experience for 20 talented undergraduate students, the program bridges the technological and humanistic understandings of our world through mentored workshops, guest seminars, group projects, innovation challenges, and real-world engagements in New York City. Over 8-weeks, students developed an appreciation for technological innovation, and the human context in which it unfolds.

 

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Fall 2021 Digital Life Seminar

Despite taking a short pause with our weekly seminars for 2021/22, stay tuned for some exciting DLI events and workshops. 

 

DLI Media Channel

Want to catch-up 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.

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Critical Reflections

Analytical Commentary

and Research

 

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More DLI Info

Jessie Taft (jgt43@cornell.edu)

Michael Byrne (mjb556@cornell.edu) 

 DLI WEBSITE 

 

@dlicornelltech

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