WHEN the internet was gathering steam in the mid 1990s, White House policy wonks got together under President Clinton’s nerdy aide, Ira Magaziner, to find ways to support it. Principles emerged like the “tax free internet” (ie, no punishing tariffs on ecommerce). Today, with big data in the headlines, a new gaggle of policy geeks have put forward a plan […]
Last week, the White House released its report on big data and its privacy implications, the result of a 90-day study commissioned by President Obama during his January 17 speech on NSA surveillance reforms. Now that we’ve had a chance to read the report we’d like to share our thoughts on what we liked, what we didn’t, and what we […]
Danah boyd, founder of the critical Big Data think/do tank Data and Society, writes about the work she did with the White House on Big Data: Seizing Opportunities, Preserving Values [PDF]. Boyd and her team convened a conference called The Social, Cultural & Ethical Dimensions of “Big Data” (read the proceedings here), and fed the conclusions from that event back […]
The White House this week released a report on big data in which it calls for an update to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). The act, which should in fact be called the Electronic Communications Lack Of Privacy Act, is sorely in need of reform.The ECPA allows the government to access email that is older than 180 days, or has […]
A White House review of how the government and private sector use large sets of data has found that such information could be used to discriminate against Americans on issues such as housing and employment even as it makes their lives easier in many ways.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — A White House review of how the government and private sector use large sets of data has found that such information could be used to discriminate against Americans on issues such as housing and employment even as it makes their lives easier in many ways.”Big data” is everywhere.It allows mapping apps to ping cellphones anonymously and determine, […]
Saul Loeb/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesJohn Podesta, a counselor to the president, said a goal of reviewing privacy and big data was to determine how the public and private sectors might maximize the flow of information necessary for innovation while minimizing potential privacy risks to individuals. CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — With the success of its free open online course system, called […]
The University of Washington is one of three schools across the country sharing a major grant to spread ”big data” analysis skills beyond computer science and apply them to other fields.The UW’s share of the five-year, $38 million grant will build up the school’s eScience Institute and Center for Statistics and Social Sciences. It is funding five data scientists, four postdoctoral data […]
