Every day, corporations, governments and other organisations collect vast amounts of data on our movements, our online habits and our shopping preferences. These data can be used to predict and understand our lives in ways that we are only beginning to discover and understand.
While the fast-moving field of data analytics creates incredible opportunities, there are concerns that the law, ethics and policy fields are lagging behind and that we will lose control of how our personal data are used. What are the ethical issues that data analytics bring up? Should and could consumers control how their data are used? Are current legal frameworks fit for purpose? This PolicyLab meeting will bring together a range of perspectives to inform the debate around these issues.
Focusing on the analysis of consumer data, experts from the data analytics industry and social or biomedical research will explain the art of the possible, how this can benefit society and the economy. An expert panel will then discuss the ethical, legal and privacy implications of these developments.
Sir John Skehel FRS, will chair a panel of speakers including:
- Giles Pavey, Chief Data Scientist at dunnhumby, the customer science company behind leading supermarket loyalty card schemes
- Professor Paul Longley, professor of Geographic Information Science at UCL and ESRC Strategic Advisor for Data Resources
- Baroness Onora O’Neill FRS, political philosopher and ethicist
- Professor Jane Kaye, Director of the Centre for Health, Law and Emerging Technologies at Oxford: HeLEX