December 2018
Safiya Noble – Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism
In Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism Safiya Umoja Noble challenges the idea that search engines like Google offer an equal playing field for all forms of ideas, identities, and activities. Data discrimination is a real social problem; Noble argues that the combination of private interests in promoting certain sites, along with the monopoly status of a relatively small number of Internet search engines, leads to a biased set of search algorithms that privilege whiteness and discriminate against people of color, specifically women of color.
February 2019
CITP Special Event: Building Trust Online: A Conversation with Gabriel Weinberg, CEO of DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is the world’s leading pro-privacy search engine. Since its founding ten years ago, DuckDuckGo has processed over 26 billion search queries. The company has grown to over 55 employees and earned over $25 million in revenue.
This conversation, between DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg and Professor Jonathan Mayer, will explore the privacy and business dimensions of building trust online. Topics will include the state of consumer confidence in the online ecosystem, growing an entrepreneurial venture grounded in user trust, and the future of trust online.
March 2019
CITP Special Event: One Year Into the EU Data Protection Law: How is it Working?
Attendance by invitation only. Etienne Maury from the Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (CNIL) and Estelle Masse from Access Now will provide an overview of the functioning of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) almost one year in. This conversation will reflect on the law’s negotiation and recent enforcement process, present some of its novelty and also potential shortcomings. Topics will include international data transfers, individuals’ rights, impact on economy and business models, fines and companies’ attitude…
October 2019
The G.S. Beckwith Gilbert ’63 Lectures: General John R. Allen USMC (Ret.) – AI on the Battlefield: Ethics and Rules of Engagement
A conversation with General John R. Allen USMC (Ret.), President, Brookings Institution; Former Commander, ISA and US Forces, Afghanistan and Edward W. Felten, Robert E. Kahn Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs
November 2019
The TechSoc Reading Group: Dr. Finn Brunton – Digital Cash: The Unknown History of the Anarchists, Utopians, and Technologists Who Created Cryptocurrency
The TechSoc Reading Group will host Dr. Finn Brunton for a discussion of his new book Digital Cash: The Unknown History of the Anarchists, Utopians, and Technologists Who Created Cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin may appear to be a revolutionary form of digital cash without precedent or prehistory. In fact, it is only the best-known recent experiment in a long line of similar efforts going back to the 1970s. But the story behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and its blockchain technology has largely been untold—until now. In Digital Cash, Finn Brunton reveals how technological utopians and political radicals created experimental money to bring