Political Geography: Global Focus / Topic: Privacy

Author:: Claudia Biancotti and Paolo Ciocca
Publication Date:: 04-2019
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
Abstract:: Over the past few years, it has become apparent that a small number of technology companies have assembled detailed datasets on the characteristics, preferences, and behavior of billions of individuals. This concentration of data is at the root of a worrying power imbalance between dominant internet firms and the rest of society, reflecting negatively on collective security, consumer rights, and competition. Introducing data sharing mandates, or requirements for market leaders to share user data with other firms and academia, would have a positive effect on competition. As data are a key input for artificial intelligence (AI), more widely available information would help spread the benefits of AI through the economy. On the other hand, data sharing could worsen existing risks to consumer privacy and collective security. Policymakers intending to implement a data sharing mandate should carefully evaluate this tradeoff.
Topic:: Security, Government, Science and Technology, Privacy, Internet, Monopoly, and Artificial Intelligence
Political Geography:: Global Focus

Author:: Paul Rosenzweig
Publication Date:: 07-2019
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Fletcher Security Review
Institution:: The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:: Benjamin Franklin is famous, in part, for having said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” Though historical evidence suggests Franklin’s quote has been misinterpreted,[1] the aphorism has come to stand for the proposition that privacy and security stand in opposition to each other, where every increase in security likely results in a commensurate decrease in privacy, and vice versa. Couched in those terms, the privacy/security trade-off is a grim prospect. We naturally want both privacy and security to the greatest extent possible. But Franklin tells us this is impossible — that privacy and security are locked in a zero-sum game where the gain of one comes only at the loss of the other. Of course, this characterization is assuredly flawed; it is certainly possible to adopt systems that maximize both privacy and security in a Pareto optimal way. That is one of the reasons why so many privacy and security experts simply revile the “balancing” metaphor — it obscures more than it illuminates...
Topic:: Security, Science and Technology, Cybersecurity, and Privacy
Political Geography:: Global Focus and United States of America

Author:: Simone Lombardini, Alexia Pretari, and Emily Tomkys Valteri
Publication Date:: 07-2018
Content Type:: Case Study
Institution:: Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:: Three years on from the Going Digital: Using digital technology to conduct Oxfam’s Effectiveness Reviews pilots, where we shared learning on the added value of using digital technology to conduct our impact evaluations, Oxfam continues to develop its survey techniques through the use of technology. The second paper in this series, Going Digital: Using and sharing real-time data during fieldwork, demonstrated how Oxfam was sharing real-time data during fieldwork to increase engagement and participation in surveyed communities, as well as improving integration between qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques. In this third paper, we present some of the features enabled by digital data collection technology that we have been piloted and used to improve quality and accuracy of data. It also explores ways in which the ethics of respecting privacy can be improved in survey data collection.
Topic:: Science and Technology, Privacy, Data, and Digitization
Political Geography:: Global Focus

Author:: Art Carden
Publication Date:: 07-2017
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Independent Institute
Abstract:: First-user appropriation of private property is defensible on several grounds, and it meets Locke’s “enough, and as good” proviso by actually providing “more, and better” and by creating an institutional context in which objects can be defined as goods. This essay considers Locke’s prohibition against waste and argues that private property and exchange also allow us to define what it means for something to be “wasted” by conveying useful knowledge about alternative uses of resources to their owners.
Topic:: Privacy and Political and institutional effectiveness
Political Geography:: Global Focus

Author:: Nigel Shadbolt, Wendy Hall, and Keiron O'Hara
Publication Date:: 03-2016
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)
Abstract:: In May 2014, the world of privacy regulation, data handling and the World Wide Web changed dramatically as a result of judgment C-131/12 in the CJEU. The so-called Google Spain decision confirmed that EU data protection legislation gives data subjects the right to request search engines to de-index webpages that appear in the search results on their names. The search engine is not obliged to agree to such requests — certain conditions have to be met and tests applied — but it is not free simply to ignore them. The decision drew on the 1995 DPD2 and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, and is consistent with a general direction toward more aggressive protection of privacy rights in Europe, as evidenced by the annulment of the Data Retention Directive, also in 2014 (CJEU 2014). Nevertheless, despite these antecedents, it has been seen as a major step in establishing a right to be forgotten.
Topic:: Science and Technology, Communications, Mass Media, Global Markets, Information Age, Digital Economy, and Privacy
Political Geography:: United States and Global Focus

Refine your search