Balancing Privacy With Data Sharing for the Public Good; The New York Times, February 19, 2021

 David Deming, The New York Times; Balancing Privacy With Data Sharing for the Public Good

"Governments and technology companies are increasingly collecting vast amounts of personal data, prompting new laws, myriad investigations and calls for stricter regulation to protect individual privacy.

Yet despite these issues, economics tells us that society needs more data sharing rather than less, because the benefits of publicly available data often outweigh the costs. Public access to sensitive health records sped up the development of lifesaving medical treatments like the messenger-RNA coronavirus vaccinesproduced by Moderna and Pfizer. Better economic data could vastly improve policy responses to the next crisis."

We Need Transparency in Algorithms, But Too Much Can Backfire; Harvard Business Review, July 23, 2018

Kartik Hosanagar and Vivian Jair, Harvard Business Review; We Need Transparency in Algorithms, But Too Much Can Backfire

"Companies and governments increasingly rely upon algorithms to make decisions that affect people’s lives and livelihoods – from loan approvals, to recruiting, legal sentencing, and college admissions. Less vital decisions, too, are being delegated to machines, from internet search results to product recommendations, dating matches, and what content goes up on our social media feeds. In response, many experts have called for rules and regulations that would make the inner workings of these algorithms transparent. But as Nass’s experience makes clear, transparency can backfire if not implemented carefully. Fortunately, there is a smart way forward."

The Guardian view on privacy online: a human right; The Guardian, April 26, 2018

Editorial Board, The Guardian; The Guardian view on privacy online: a human right

"Encryption on the internet will be abused, but better that than a society where no one is allowed secrets from the government"

The Six Data Privacy Principles of the GDPR; Corporate Counsel, March 26, 2018

Amy Lewis, Corporate Counsel; The Six Data Privacy Principles of the GDPR

"Data privacy and personal data breaches have been in the news a lot recently. Over the past few years, companies have been collecting and processing ever-increasing amounts of data about their customers, employees, and users. As personal data becomes more valuable, governments around the world have begun the debate surrounding whether this data collection should be limited in favor of individuals’ fundamental right to privacy.

The Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the European Union’s answer to these debates. This new regulation strives to take the decisions regarding some uses of personal data out of the hands of companies and return control to the individuals that the data refer to—the data subjects. Any company that has a European presence or handles European residents’ personal data is subject to the GDPR. These companies will likely need to upgrade their data security and privacy procedures to meet the personal data handling requirements of the GDPR.

The GDPR’s data privacy goals can be summarized in six personal data processing principles: Lawfulness, Fairness and Transparency; Purpose Limitation; Data Minimization; Accuracy; Integrity and Confidentiality; and Storage Limitation."

Control AI now or brace for nightmare future, experts warn; CNN, February 21, 2018

Sherisse Pham, CNN; Control AI now or brace for nightmare future, experts warn

"...Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk issued a dire warning, suggesting the race between different countries for AI superiority could cause a new world war.

Cambridge's [Seán] Ó hÉigeartaigh described a somewhat less apocalyptic vision.

"We live in a world that could become fraught with day-to-day hazards from the misuse of AI," he said in a statement. "We need to take ownership of the problems -- because the risks are real."

The report, which was also backed by Musk's Open AI research institute and the Center for a New American Security, isn't all doom and gloom.

The authors acknowledge AI has many potential benefits, but they are urging governments and companies to take steps now to reduce the risks of it being misused."

Illinois Issues: The Battle Over Transparency And Privacy In The Digital Age; NPR Illinois, July 13, 2017

Daisy Contreras, NPR Illiois; Illinois Issues: The Battle Over Transparency And Privacy In The Digital Age

"Privacy experts like John Verdi from the Future of Privacy Forum says that he believes much of the debate between opponents and proponents comes from the nature of the topic, which is in of itself a complicated issue because of the patchwork of legislation across different states.

“It is a vastly complicated space, where you have potential benefits from data to consumers, to businesses, to the economy — to governments. And you also have real concrete privacy and security risks for individuals.”...

For the time being, some consumers and privacy advocates like Carolyn Parrish, just want website owners and app developers to establish consensus about what might be considered too much data sharing and to establish ground rules for transparency with consumers.  “Giving people greater visibility into what’s happening behind the scenes—it’s useful. Knowledge is helpful to people to help them make educated choices.”"

GDPR: EU Goes Against The Global Grain To Protect Privacy; Forbes, June 7, 2017

Simon Crosby, Forbes; GDPR: EU Goes Against The Global Grain To Protect Privacy

"Could it be that the EU is about to save the internet? At a time when internet users worldwide are increasingly under surveillance by governments, service providers, advertising networks and social media websites, it seems that one of the internet’s greatest promises -- open communication for all -- has been lost. But the EU has an opportunity to sway the outcome with the recently adopted General Data Protection Regulation, which will become law next year.

The EU’s implementation of GDPR has an opportunity to become the most important globally recognized set of principles to protect online privacy. In recent developments, President Donald Trump and his administration promised to mandate rapid improvements in U.S. cybersecurity, but they quickly acquiesced to commercial interests by overriding regulations that the Federal Communications Commission had set up to legitimize the sale of subscriber information by ISPs.

What does GDPR mean for consumers? In short, it will strengthen the practice of fundamental privacy rights of individuals and put users back in control of their personal data. This level of regulation will apply to both corporations and governments and will have the potential to inherently disrupt the protocols for data protection on a global scale."

The Future of Privacy; New York Times, 12/6/16

William Gibson, New York Times; The Future of Privacy:

"I’ve never been able to fit the concepts of privacy, history and encryption together in a satisfying way, though it continues to seem that I should. Each concept has to do with information; each can be considered to concern the public and the private; and each involves aspects of society, and perhaps particularly digital society. But experience has taught me that all I can hope to do with these three concepts is demonstrate the problems that considering them together causes."