At Berkeley, Experts Mine Questions of Big Data, Power and Privacy

by  Barry Bergman,  UC Berkeley NewsCenter 

A recent University of California, Berkeley workshop convened representatives of government, business, the law, and academia for what Berkeley professor Deirdre Mulligan described as “a frank and honest conversation about our values” and how to reconcile those values with data collection about every aspect of our lives.

The session concentrated on the stresses between technological innovation and societal values such as privacy, fairness, and the right of citizens to be kept apprised of what corporations and government entities know about them. Although individuals may be willing to cede a certain level of privacy provided there are sufficient checks over how that information is shared and used, the issue of big data collection complicates the situation.

“Big data requires us to ask ourselves, how do we embrace new technologies and the progress they bring to our society, while at the same time protecting our fundamental freedoms and values, like privacy, fairness and self-determination?” said White House counselor John Podesta.

Berkeley professor Kenneth Bamberger suggested there are different levels of transparency, and said individual choices cannot surmount questions of power in the big data era, when no one knows precisely how the data is being used. Finding a definition for privacy is even more fundamentally important than how to protect it, said some panelists.  Full report