Privacy is Dead. Long Live Privacy? at the 2007 Battle of Ideas conference hosted by the Institute of Ideas.
New technology seems to have changed the meaning of privacy, affording individuals the possibility of sharing details of their hitherto private lives in unprecedented ways, from personal blogs to picture sharing and even 'social bookmarking'. For many of us, divulging intimate details of our private lives via social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook has become the norm. But information and communication technologies have also facilitated surveillance and data gathering by government and big businesses. While in some contexts we seem so ready to give up our privacy, in others we seem increasingly anxious to protect it.
To what extent are new technologies responsible for the death of privacy? Are privacy concerns simply technophobic, or are we right to worry about a loss of control over personal information? Have new technologies and our enthusiastic adoption of them actually transformed our notions of public and private, and blown apart the wall dividing the two? Why do we worry about Tesco monitoring what we buy, when, according to Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy: 'You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it'?- IoI
Bio
Anne Anderson
Professor Anne Anderson is a psychologist interested in human communication and the impacts of new information and communication technologies. Her research has investigated how people communicate, collaborate and solve problems, and how IT systems do or do not replicate the advantages of face-to-face interactions. She has held many research grants on these topics, funded by ESRC, EPSRC, EC and industry. As well as her own research Professor Anderson has been extensively involved in research management.
Professor Anderson was a principal investigator in the Human Communication Research Centre, funded from 1990 to 2000 by ESRC. From 1995 to 2000 she was director of the ESRC Cognitive Engineering programme, which was an initiative that funded 15 projects across the UK on topics concerned with people and IT. From 2000 to 2006 she was director of the £7 million LINK programme funded by ESRC, EPSRC and the DTI called People at the Centre of Information and Communication Technologies (PACCIT).
In 2002 she was awarded an OBE for services to social science. In 2006 she was awarded the first ESRC Directorial Fellowship to synthesise the lessons learned from the PACCIT programme on encouraging university–industry research collaborations. She has also been involved in a number of policies concerned with IT and society, including being a member of the Foresight Advisory Group Cyber Trust and Crime Prevention in 2003-4, as well as a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering Working Group preparing a report on Dilemmas of Surveillance in 2005-7.
Rob Killick
Killick is the founder and CEO of cScape. cScape is a Microsoft Gold partner and a customer-centric digital agency, spearheading new research and practice in online engagement for the corporate, governmental and not-for-profit sectors. In 2006,
Killick helped cScape achieve a series of global break-throughs within e-marketing and IT, launching the world's first Online Customer Engagement Survey as well as the world's first live site on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.
Killick has 20 years of senior management experience, is a regular media commentator and has spoken at numerous public conferences. He has contributed to a range of Institute of Ideas events, including the Battle of Ideas and the Debating Matters Competition. Killick's writing has appeared in a wide range of publications ranging from economic think-tanks to marketing magazines and web publications in the UK and abroad.
These include the Social Science Research Network, Journal of the Institute of Economic Affairs, Executive Internet, spiked and Novo.
Tessa Mayes
Tessa Mayes is an award-winning investigative journalist and author, her research specialties being in civil liberties, media, public policy, justice and privacy. She contributes regularly to The Spectator magazine and is a commentator for spiked, Novo magazine (Germany) and end-of-journalism.org.
Her reporting credits include: The Sunday Times, Cosmopolitan magazine, BBC Panorama, ITV The Cook Report, Carlton TV's The Investigators, Channel 4 investigative series, Sky News investigations department, and Die Welt newspaper. She also appears on CNN to comment on politics and the media.
In addition to these appearances, she has also organized and given talks on media and privacy issues at the Adam Smith Institute, City University's Department of Journalism, and the London School of Economics.
Phil Mullan
Phil Mullan is an economist and business adviser. Author of The Imaginary Time Bomb: Why an Ageing Population is not a Social Problem, he researches, writes and lectures on economic, demographic and business issues.
Formerly chief executive of the internet services company Cybercafe Ltd, which opened the world's first internet cafe, Cyberia, he currently works with a range of businesses. This includes a non-executive directorship with Easynet Group PLC, one of Europe's leading business broadband networking companies.
Jeffrey Rosen
Jeffrey Rosen is a professor of law at George Washington University and the legal affairs editor of The New Republic. A widely read legal commentator, his most recent book is The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries that Defined America, a companion book to the PBS series on the Supreme Court.
He is also the author of The Most Democratic Branch, The Naked Crowd, and The Unwanted Gaze.
A graduate of Harvard College, Oxford University, and Yale Law School, he has been a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, and his essays and commentaries have appeared in the New York Times Magazine and The Atlantic, as well as on National Public Radio.
Tim Smart
As CEO of BT Global Services UK (GS UK), Tim Smart is a Senior Executive & Non-Executive Director of both a FTSE 100 and NYSE listed company respectively. He has a demonstrable record of developing sustainable growth and shareholder value. As Chairman of the Global Services UK Board, Tim has overall responsibility for BT GS in the UK.
A graduate in Economics (Birmingham, 1979), Tim’s career started with Shell where, over a 10 year period, he operated across their corporate functions before joining BT. A proven strategist, Tim has led and contributed to creating compelling international business strategies, programmes of change and fostered an entrepreneurial culture. At the same time he has actively promoted a social conscience that has helped transform BT from its historical position as the UK’s incumbent telecommunications company to one of the most socially responsible multinationals, and a leading global provider of technology services across both the private and public sectors. Whilst at BT Tim has led on a number of critical international board level initiatives and businesses, best illustrated in his leadership in dissolving the Concert global alliance with ATT, his tenure as CEO of Telfort - BT’s Dutch business and the shaping and implementing of BT’s Networked IT Services strategy. Most recently, he led the team that won and delivered a number of strategically significant deals that have transformed BT’s business, including BT’s contracts with the NHS.
Tim supports a number of child focussed charitable endeavours, both personally and professionally, from ‘Outward Bound’ to UNICEF. Amongst his other responsibilities Tim is also the BT executive responsible for Diversity.
Body of law bearing on the world of computer networks, especially the Internet. As traffic on the Internet has increased, so have the number and kind of legal issues surrounding the technology. Hotly debated issues include the obscenity of some on-line sites, the right of privacy, freedom of speech, regulation of electronic commerce, and the applicability of copyright laws.
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