If you’re living in America today, you’re constantly producing data. When you drive, visit a website, click a link, buy something, register to vote, or tweet, you’re producing data. And lots of that data is collected and used by local, state, and federal government entities, to do everything from improving public transportation to deploying police officers to specific neighborhoods. If you’re interested in individual civil rights, you know that technology often outpaces the law: today, we live in a country (and a world) that is gathering data about us faster than the law can regulate the use of that data.
On April 17, Berkeley Center for Law and Technology and the Berkeley Technology Law Journal jointly hosted a symposium called Open Data: Addressing Privacy, Security, & Civil Rights Challenges. Leading legal scholars from all around the country and the world gathered at the University of California Berkeley School of Law to discuss the policy and law of open data. Microsoft served as the lead sponsor.
Here are some things I learned:
- Facebook analytics can predict, with 65% accuracy, whether you use illegal drugs.
- Machine learning that relies on crowdsourcing information can absorb human biases.
- Private information about jurors and witnesses can easily become part of the public record of a court case.
If you’re interested in the conversation, check out @BCLTatBOALT, @BLTJBOALT, #BCLTOpenData, and #BTLJ
