Showing posts with label data sets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label data sets. Show all posts

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Can Higher Education Make Silicon Valley More Ethical?; Chronicle of Higher Education, March 14, 2018

Nell Gluckman, Chronicle of Higher Education; Can Higher Education Make Silicon Valley More Ethical?

"Jim Malazita, an assistant professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, hopes to infuse ethics lessons into core computer-science courses."...

"Q. You mentioned you’ve been getting some pushback.

A. I’ve had to do a lot of social work with computer-science faculty. The faculty were like, This sounds cool, but will they still be able to move on in computer science? We’re using different, messier data sets. Will they still understand the formal aspects of computing?

Q. What do you tell faculty members to convince them that this is a good use of your students’ time?

A. I use a couple of strategies that sometimes work, sometimes don’t. It’s surprisingly important to talk about my own technical expertise. I only moved into social science and humanities as a Ph.D. student. As an undergraduate, my degree was in digital media design. So you can trust me with this content.

It’s helpful to also cast it in terms of helping women and underrepresented-minority retention in computer science. These questions have an impact on all students, but especially women and underrepresented minorities who are used to having their voices marginalized. The faculty want those numbers up."

Monday, May 15, 2017

Under Trump, inconvenient data is being sidelined; Washington Post, May 14, 2017

Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post; Under Trump, inconvenient data is being sidelined

"Across the vast breadth of the government, agencies have traditionally provided the public with massive data sets, which can be of great value to companies, researchers and advocacy groups, among others. Three months ago, there were 195,245 public data sets available on www.data.gov, according to Nathan Cortez, the associate dean of research at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law, who studies the handling of public data. This week it stood at just under 156,000.

Data experts say the decrease, at least in part, may reflect the consolidation of data sets or the culling of outdated ones, rather than a strategic move to keep information from the public. But the reduction was clearly a conscious decision."

Speaker's Corner: Privacy needs better protection; Law Times, May 15, 2017

Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Law Times; 

Speaker's Corner: Privacy needs better protection


"There are also concerns that our current model of informed consent needs updating. The majority of Canadians admit to not reading privacy policies for mobile apps, and a recent privacy sweep — in which 25 privacy enforcement authorities participated — found that privacy communications of Internet-connected devices are generally poor and fail to inform users about exactly what personal information is being collected and how it will be used. It is difficult to reconcile these facts with the goal of meaningful consent.

This is especially important as more devices collect more information about our lives. From smart meters that track our energy consumption to fridges that track what we eat, Cisco Systems estimates there will be 50 billion connected devices by 2020. As a consumer, I want convenience and will trade some of my privacy. As a citizen and as a lawyer, I want laws that substantively protect my privacy. 

In general terms, we should mandate privacy by design. Governments and third parties ought to anonymize our personal information, and our government should follow Australia’s example and make it an offence to re-identify published government data sets. We should also look beyond the law to protect our data. 

Take Estonia. On the one hand, it has embraced big data through maintaining a national register with a single unique identifier for all citizens and residents. Customer service is improved and information is exchanged more easily. On the other hand, the same system ensures that citizens can correct or remove data easily and can see which officials have viewed their data. 

In summary, we need to embrace new laws and new technology. We need not sacrifice our privacy."