Wednesday, July 5 2017, 15:30-17:00, in the Attic (Grote Gracht 80-82, Maastricht)
Data, visibility and justice: integrating rights and freedoms across information societies
The increasing availability of ‘data fumes’ – data emitted as a byproduct of people’s use of technological devices and services – has both political and practical implications for the way people are seen and treated by the state and by the private sector. This presentation will suggest that just as an idea of justice is needed in order to establish the rule of law, an idea of data justice is necessary to determine ethical paths through a datafying world. A perspective will be proposed that integrates positive with negative rights and freedoms with regard to technology, and that would challenge both the basis of current data protection regulations and the growing assumption that being visible through the data we emit is part of the contemporary social contract.
Linnet Taylor is Assistant Professor of Data Ethics, Law and Policy at the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT). She was previously a Marie Curie research fellow in the University of Amsterdam’s International Development faculty, with the Governance and Inclusive Development group. Her research focuses on the use of new types of digital data in research and policymaking around issues of development, urban planning and mobility.