ADVANCING SOCIETY – INNOVATION
HOORCOLLEGE 1: 29-08-2019
Advancing Society: Innovation” courses focus on the development of your analytical and personal
capabilities to study (and solve) the modern dilemmas that emerge in today’s advancing society.
Innovations of the Digital Age
Transmitting and storing information digitally gets cheaper and cheapter
Digital communication nearly ubiquitous in modern industrialized societies
- Just have a brief look around …
We have arrived in the “Digital Age”
Analog Storage Digital Storage
Paper, Canvas, … PC Hard Drives
Film / Microfilm CDs / Floppy disks
Audiotape (Cassette) DVDs / Blu-ray
Videotape (VHS) Portable Hard Drives
Vinyl Flash Drives / SD Cards
Digital age: When did digital storage hit 50% of all storage?
2002: “Beginning of the digital stage” 50% storage digital
Dilemma?
Digital communication can be analyzed easier
New opportunities
Reduced cost of communication
Improved decision-making processes
Increased relevance and personalization
New threats
Data leaks and hacking
Increased surveillance potential
Risk of unwanted discrimination
New requirements
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) (Dutch: AVG)
Teaching what?
“Advancing Society: Innovation”
Modern Dilemma driven by Innovation? We chose to focus on privacy (or lack of it) in the digital
age for this Advancing Society Course.
,Another Connection
“Conditions of diminished privacy also impair the capacity to innovate.”
Innovation requires capacity for critical perspective
Innovation is not only about independence of mind
Innovation also requires room to tinker
“Therefore [it] thrives most fully in an environment that values and preserves spaces for tinkering.”
Objective of this Course
The main objective of the course is to introduce you to various aspects of privacy in a data-driven
society as well as economic models that allow the analysis of some of these issues.
Privacy is a multifaceted concept
Different angles:
Economic analysis
Legal concepts
Policy aspects
Managerial implications
This course is NOT meant to …
… be dogmatic in opinion, because
- There are many different/opposing views
- Many things do not have an easy answer (good/bad)
… scare you about all information disclosure, because
- Some things may diminish and enhance privacy
… turn you into (anti-) privacy activists, because
- Many trade-offs are subjective and contextual
- What you find invasive in context A, may be fine in B
- What you consider a violation, your neighbor doesn’t
Group assignment: November 23, 2019
COMMON PRIVACY MYTHS
1. “There is not privacy in the digital age”
2. “No one cares about privacy anymore”
3. “If you haven’t done anything wrong, you (should) have nothing to hide”
“No privacy in the Digital Age?”
Eric Schmidt, then CEO of Google, is reported to have said in 2010:
“We don’t need you to type at all. We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can
more or less know what you’re thinking about.”
But actually…
Sentences were changed, this is what he actually said: “We know where you are – with your
permission. We know where you’ve been – with your permission.”
,So we do have some control – but how much?
One potential reason for success: e-book nature allowed more discrete reading .. and purchasing!
Fifty shades is a little bit embarrassing to be reading or buying: nobody will see this on an e-book.
More private way: you don’t have to face anyone.
No privacy in the Digital Age?
Not necessarily!
But new trade-offs emerge such as:
Tracking by firms versus social pressure.
“No one cares about privacy anymore”
… Who cares about privacy? Is Zuckenberg right that people don’t care about privacy anymore?
The social norm of keeping private is changing
“People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but
more openly and with more people.” “That social norm is just something that has evolved over
time.”
“Young people don’t care about privacy”
Young adults are the most likely to use most strategies to be less visible online
The people that share the most information are incidentally the most aware of sharing that
information and protecting it in a certain way.
“Nobody Cares Anymore?”
Plenty of Evidence that people do care about privacy. But it may not be easy to do so.
“If you haven’t done anything wrong, you (should) have nothing to hide”
So you have nothing to hide?
“Face Value” Discussion
Can I get your:
Passwords?
Search history?
Bank statements?
Medical records?
Why do you have curtains?
Why do you lock the toilet?
Why do you wear clothes?
“Underlying Assumptions” Discussion
Why privacy matters even if you have nothing to hide
“Nothing to hide”
, From Whom People Hide
Young adults are the most likely to take steps to hide from others online
Nothing to Hide?
Everybody has something they don’t want to show
But that may not be the fundamental issue
HOORCOLLEGE 1: 29-08-2019
Advancing Society: Innovation” courses focus on the development of your analytical and personal
capabilities to study (and solve) the modern dilemmas that emerge in today’s advancing society.
Innovations of the Digital Age
Transmitting and storing information digitally gets cheaper and cheapter
Digital communication nearly ubiquitous in modern industrialized societies
- Just have a brief look around …
We have arrived in the “Digital Age”
Analog Storage Digital Storage
Paper, Canvas, … PC Hard Drives
Film / Microfilm CDs / Floppy disks
Audiotape (Cassette) DVDs / Blu-ray
Videotape (VHS) Portable Hard Drives
Vinyl Flash Drives / SD Cards
Digital age: When did digital storage hit 50% of all storage?
2002: “Beginning of the digital stage” 50% storage digital
Dilemma?
Digital communication can be analyzed easier
New opportunities
Reduced cost of communication
Improved decision-making processes
Increased relevance and personalization
New threats
Data leaks and hacking
Increased surveillance potential
Risk of unwanted discrimination
New requirements
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) (Dutch: AVG)
Teaching what?
“Advancing Society: Innovation”
Modern Dilemma driven by Innovation? We chose to focus on privacy (or lack of it) in the digital
age for this Advancing Society Course.
,Another Connection
“Conditions of diminished privacy also impair the capacity to innovate.”
Innovation requires capacity for critical perspective
Innovation is not only about independence of mind
Innovation also requires room to tinker
“Therefore [it] thrives most fully in an environment that values and preserves spaces for tinkering.”
Objective of this Course
The main objective of the course is to introduce you to various aspects of privacy in a data-driven
society as well as economic models that allow the analysis of some of these issues.
Privacy is a multifaceted concept
Different angles:
Economic analysis
Legal concepts
Policy aspects
Managerial implications
This course is NOT meant to …
… be dogmatic in opinion, because
- There are many different/opposing views
- Many things do not have an easy answer (good/bad)
… scare you about all information disclosure, because
- Some things may diminish and enhance privacy
… turn you into (anti-) privacy activists, because
- Many trade-offs are subjective and contextual
- What you find invasive in context A, may be fine in B
- What you consider a violation, your neighbor doesn’t
Group assignment: November 23, 2019
COMMON PRIVACY MYTHS
1. “There is not privacy in the digital age”
2. “No one cares about privacy anymore”
3. “If you haven’t done anything wrong, you (should) have nothing to hide”
“No privacy in the Digital Age?”
Eric Schmidt, then CEO of Google, is reported to have said in 2010:
“We don’t need you to type at all. We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can
more or less know what you’re thinking about.”
But actually…
Sentences were changed, this is what he actually said: “We know where you are – with your
permission. We know where you’ve been – with your permission.”
,So we do have some control – but how much?
One potential reason for success: e-book nature allowed more discrete reading .. and purchasing!
Fifty shades is a little bit embarrassing to be reading or buying: nobody will see this on an e-book.
More private way: you don’t have to face anyone.
No privacy in the Digital Age?
Not necessarily!
But new trade-offs emerge such as:
Tracking by firms versus social pressure.
“No one cares about privacy anymore”
… Who cares about privacy? Is Zuckenberg right that people don’t care about privacy anymore?
The social norm of keeping private is changing
“People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but
more openly and with more people.” “That social norm is just something that has evolved over
time.”
“Young people don’t care about privacy”
Young adults are the most likely to use most strategies to be less visible online
The people that share the most information are incidentally the most aware of sharing that
information and protecting it in a certain way.
“Nobody Cares Anymore?”
Plenty of Evidence that people do care about privacy. But it may not be easy to do so.
“If you haven’t done anything wrong, you (should) have nothing to hide”
So you have nothing to hide?
“Face Value” Discussion
Can I get your:
Passwords?
Search history?
Bank statements?
Medical records?
Why do you have curtains?
Why do you lock the toilet?
Why do you wear clothes?
“Underlying Assumptions” Discussion
Why privacy matters even if you have nothing to hide
“Nothing to hide”
, From Whom People Hide
Young adults are the most likely to take steps to hide from others online
Nothing to Hide?
Everybody has something they don’t want to show
But that may not be the fundamental issue
