Video: Jim Adler on Why Big Data is a Hotbed of Thoughtcrime

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

In this video, Jim Adler, Chief Privacy Officer at Intelius presents: Big Data is a Hotbed of Thoughtcrime. So What?

Since the first human scrawled an image on a cave wall, the brain has been processing petabytes of data. Today, we’re passing through an historical threshold where big data is leaching out of our braincases into the disembodied cloud. For the first time in human existence, we can “think” outside of our brains. What does this mean for privacy, morality, ethics, and the law? This is not just theoretical. Retailers know you’re pregnant before your family; your sexual orientation can be automatically derived from your friends list; and police can predict where and when crime is more likely to occur. So, if we can make these inferences, should we? Thoughts may be inappropriate but the law doesn’t punish thought. When thought is translated into speech, it is protected to a great extent. Only when thought is translated to action might the law intervene. This talk will examine recent big data inferences in similar contexts of thought, speech, and action.

This video was recorded at the 2012 Strata Conference in New York. View the slides.

Speak Your Mind

*