Upcoming Events: America's Complicated Relationship with Civic Duty (3/24); Data and Goliath Book Launch (3/25)

America's Complicated Relationship with Civic Duty: Understanding Everyday Americans at the Core of Civic Innovation

Tuesday, March 24, 12:00pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Floor. This event will be webcast live.

This talk will explore the results of research conducted over the past year by the Google Civic Innovation team. The research includes a joint qualitative and quantitative study for understanding “Interested Bystanders,” or that portion of the population that is paying attention to the world around them, but not regularly voicing their opinions or taking action. As applied research, this work sought to 1) inform the design of civic-related products and services at Google and 2) be of actionable value across the civic technology community more broadly. In reporting what we learned, we also have attempted to share how we learned it, and offer a case study for the use of human-centered research to inform civic interventions.

Kate Krontiris is a researcher, strategist, and facilitator working to transform civic life in America. In pursuit of a society where more people assert greater ownership over the decisions that govern their lives, she uses ethnographic tools to design products, policies, and services that enable a more equitable democratic future. During her fellowship with the Berkman Center, Kate will explore two topics: 21st century girlhood, and Americans' awareness of their government's presence in their lives. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World

Wednesday, March 25, 6:00PM ET, Harvard Law School. Reception to follow.

Join the Berkman Center for a special event celebrating the release of Bruce Schneier's new book, Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World.

About the book:

You are under surveillance right now.

Your cell phone provider tracks your location and knows who’s with you. Your online and in-store purchasing patterns are recorded, and reveal if you’re unemployed, sick, or pregnant. Your e-mails and texts expose your intimate and casual friends. Google knows what you’re thinking because it saves your private searches. Facebook can determine your sexual orientation without you ever mentioning it.

The powers that surveil us do more than simply store this information. Corporations use surveillance to manipulate not only the news articles and advertisements we each see, but also the prices we’re offered. Governments use surveillance to discriminate, censor, chill free speech, and put people in danger worldwide. And both sides share this information with each other or, even worse, lose it to cybercriminals in huge data breaches.

Much of this is voluntary: we cooperate with corporate surveillance because it promises us convenience, and we submit to government surveillance because it promises us protection. The result is a mass surveillance society of our own making. But have we given up more than we’ve gained? In Data and Goliath, security expert Bruce Schneier offers another path, one that values both security and privacy. He shows us exactly what we can do to reform our government surveillance programs and shake up surveillance-based business models, while also providing tips for you to protect your privacy every day. You’ll never look at your phone, your computer, your credit cards, or even your car in the same way again.

Bruce Schneier is an internationally renowned security technologist, called a "security guru" by The Economist. He is the author of 12 books -- including Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust Society Needs to Thrive -- as well as hundreds of articles, essays, and academic papers. RSVP required. more information on our website>

The Black Box Society

Tuesday, April 7, 12:00pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Floor. This event will be webcast live.

Does the increasing velocity, variety, and volume of data make regulators' jobs harder or easier? Some say we are entering a "golden age of surveillance," enabling perfect enforcement of laws. But Frank Pasquale's book "The Black Box Society" argues that, at least in areas like privacy, antitrust, and financial regulation, big data can also enable obfuscation, stonewalling, and even fraud. At this talk, Pasquale and David Curran, Global Director, Risk & Compliance, at Thomson Reuters, will discuss the risks and opportunities that arise out of the new information environment.

Frank Pasquale’s research addresses the challenges posed to information law by rapidly changing technology, particularly in the health care, internet, and finance industries. He is a member of the NSF-funded Council for Big Data, Ethics, and Society, and an Affiliate Fellow of Yale Law School’s Information Society Project. He frequently presents on the ethical, legal, and social implications of information technology for attorneys, physicians, and other health professionals. His book The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms that Control Money and Information (Harvard University Press, 2015) develops a social theory of reputation, search, and finance. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

Distributed and Digital Disaster Response

The citizen response to 2012's Hurricane Sandy was in many important ways more effective than the response from established disaster response institutions like FEMA. New York-based response efforts like Occupy Sandy leveraged existing community networks and digital tools to find missing people; provide food, shelter, and medical assistance; and offer a hub for volunteers and donors. In this talk Willow Brugh -- Berkman fellow and Professor of Practice at Brown University -- demonstrates examples ranging from Oklahoma to Tanzania where such distributed and digital disaster response have proved successful, and empowered citizens to respond in ways traditional institutions cannot. video/audio on our website>