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

Carissa Véliz
Carissa Véliz

Enough is enough: ending the trade in personal data

Wednesday, March 16, 2022

12:30 – 1:30 pm

*We will send the seminar link and password to registered participants.

Please RSVP to Joan Sharpe.

Abstract:

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.

About the speaker:

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. Her academic work has been published in The Harvard Business Review, Nature Electronics, Nature Energy, and AI & Society, among other journals. 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. She has also advised the Spanish government and the US Congress on privacy. She is the recipient of the 2021 Herbert A. Simon Award for Outstanding Research in Computing and Philosophy. 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.

Everyone welcome!

For more information about our seminars, please visit: https://www.sscqueens.org/events/seminar-series