danah boyd: Living in a Culture of Big Data

Weaving together her work on youth, privacy, and data-driven technologies, this talk will examine the complicated social and cultural dynamics underpinning the “big data” phenomenon, the challenges of interpreting found data, and the problematic implications of using algorithms designed for one problem to address societal issues without accounting for unintended consequences. danah boyd is the founder and president of Data & Society, a NYC-based research institute. She is also a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, a Visiting Researcher at New York University, and a research affiliate at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Her research examines the intersection of technology and society. Currently, she’s focused on research questions related to “big data”, privacy and publicity, and civil rights. Her recent book – “It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens” – has received widespread praise from scholars, parents, and journalists.