25 April 2022, Monday. 3PM. London Time. Online over Zoom
Title: Targeted Ads, Data Openness, Digital Power: Reasons to be Cheerful”
Speaker: Sam Gilbert, University of Cambridge
Abstract Since the Cambridge Analytica scandal, public discussion of data and digital technology has focused on the threats big tech companies’ business models pose to individuals’ rights and freedoms. However, there are many surprising economic and social benefits to targeted advertising and the open availability of data, while the nature of tech companies’ power is more complex than the theory of “surveillance capitalism” suggests. This talk by the author of Good Data explores these benefits, offering a new way of thinking about and addressing digital power.
Bio Sam Gilbert is the author of Good Data: An Optimist’s Guide to Our Digital Future, and an affiliated researcher at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. He was previously Employee No.1 and Chief Marketing Officer at the fintech “unicorn” Bought By Many, and held senior product, growth, and strategy roles at the data company Experian and the bank Santander.
Zoom link https://mdx-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/6684138396?pwd=d0I5V2JlTHVKbjlKWXZ2MW1RZ0ozQT09
Meeting ID: 668 413 8396
Passcode: mdx