Administrative information

Title Privacy
Duration 60
Module A
Lesson Type Lecture
Focus Ethical - Ethics Fundamentals
Topic Privacy

 

Keywords

Privacy, surveillance, big tech companies,

 

Learning Goals

 

Expected Preparation

Learning Events to be Completed Before

None.

Obligatory for Students

  • Zuboff, S. (2015). Big other: surveillance capitalism and the prospects of an information civilization. Journal of information technology, 30(1), 75-89. [1]

Optional for Students

  • Possible questions for preparation:
    • Do you agree with the concerns that Zuboff expresses in her paper? Why/why not?
    • Find two practical examples where reality is translated into behavior that is traded (the fourth 'fictional commodity).

References and background for students:

None.

Recommended for Teachers

None.

Lesson Materials


The materials of this learning event are available under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

 

Instructions for Teachers

There is a general discussion about privacy and surveillance in information technology, which mainly concerns the access to private data and data that is personally identifiable. Privacy has several well recognized aspects, e.g., “the right to be let alone”, information privacy, privacy as an aspect of personhood, control over information about oneself, and the right to secrecy.

Large companies such as Google and Facebook are collecting more and more data about us. Collecting, analyzing and using this data has now become the core of their revenue model. This has major consequences for the society in which we live. It is no longer just about individual privacy, however important that is, but also about autonomy, democracy, personal development and knowledge inequality. Soshana Zuboff talks about surveillance capitalism in that regard. In this lesson we look at the possible impact of digitization and in particular 'big data' on society.

After this lesson you will be able to answer the following questions: (not complete yet, needs more input on privacy)

What are the possible consequences of the large amounts of data that the large tech companies collect for society? What is the difference between tech companies and governments that collect data? Why is the surveillance capitalism outlined by Zuboff different from market capitalism as we knew it until recently?

Topics to cover

 

More information

Click here for an overview of all lesson plans of the master human centred AI

Please visit the home page of the consortium HCAIM

Acknowledgements

The Human-Centered AI Masters programme was co-financed by the Connecting Europe Facility of the European Union Under Grant №CEF-TC-2020-1 Digital Skills 2020-EU-IA-0068.

The materials of this learning event are available under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

 

The HCAIM consortium consists of three excellence centres, three SMEs and four Universities

HCAIM Consortium