¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥

SSC Virtual Seminar Series: Carissa Véliz, Faculty of Philosophy & the Institute for Ethics in AI, University of Oxford, USA

Enough is enough: ending the trade in personal data

Business models that are too toxic for society should not be allowed to thrive. In this talk, I will argue that privacy is power, and that massive losses of privacy are disempowering the citizenry, and therefore democracy. The data economy is undermining equality and fairness. Privacy is the blindfold of justice—it is how we make sure the system treats citizens impartially. Furthermore, our current data landscape is a national security risk that makes us vulnerable at a time in which authoritarian regimes with a knack for hacking are on the rise. Personal data is not the kind of thing that should be bought and sold. We should end the data economy because it is at odds with well-functioning liberal democracies.

Carissa Véliz is an Associate Professor in Philosophy at the Institute for Ethics in AI, and a Fellow at Hertford College at the University of Oxford. She works on privacy, technology, moral and political philosophy, and public policy. Véliz has been a witness to the House of Lords Communications and Digital Select Committee and to the Joint Committee on the Draft Online Safety Bill. Véliz is the author of Privacy Is Power (an Economist book of the year) and the editor of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Digital Ethics.