Jules Polonetsky

O. Tene, J. Polonetsky and A. Sadeghi, "Five Freedoms for the Homo Deus," in IEEE Security & Privacy, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 15-17, 2018.
Guest Editors for Special IEEE Security $ Privacy Issue on EI Ethics

Businesses are rushing to collect personal data to fuel surging demand. Data enthusiasts claim personal information that's obtained from the commercial internet, including mobile platforms, social networks, cloud computing, and connected devices, will unlock path-breaking innovation, including advanced data security. By contrast, regulators and activists contend that corporate data practices too often disempower consumers by creating privacy harms and related problems. As the Internet of Things… Show more

Businesses are rushing to collect personal data to fuel surging demand. Data enthusiasts claim personal information that's obtained from the commercial internet, including mobile platforms, social networks, cloud computing, and connected devices, will unlock path-breaking innovation, including advanced data security. By contrast, regulators and activists contend that corporate data practices too often disempower consumers by creating privacy harms and related problems. As the Internet of Things matures and facial recognition, predictive analytics, big data, and wearable tracking grow in power, scale, and scope, a controversial ecosystem will exacerbate the acrimony over commercial data capture and analysis. The only productive way forward is to get a grip on the key problems right now and change the conversation. That's exactly what Jules Polonetsky, Omer Tene, and Evan Selinger do. They bring together diverse views from leading academics, business leaders, and policymakers to discuss the opportunities and challenges of the new data economy. Show less

The rapid evolution of digital technologies has hurled to the forefront of public and legal discourse dense social and ethical dilemmas that we have hardly begun to map and understand. In the near past, general community norms helped guide a clear sense of ethical boundaries with respect to privacy. One does not peek into the window of a house even if it is left open. One does not hire a private detective to investigate a casual date or the social life of a prospective employee. Yet with… Show more

The rapid evolution of digital technologies has hurled to the forefront of public and legal discourse dense social and ethical dilemmas that we have hardly begun to map and understand. In the near past, general community norms helped guide a clear sense of ethical boundaries with respect to privacy. One does not peek into the window of a house even if it is left open. One does not hire a private detective to investigate a casual date or the social life of a prospective employee. Yet with technological innovation rapidly driving new models for business and inviting new types of personal socialization, we often have nothing more than a fleeting intuition as to what is right or wrong. Our intuition may suggest that it is responsible to investigate the driving record of the nanny who drives our child to school, since such tools are now readily available. But is it also acceptable to seek out the records of other parents in our child’s car pool or of a date who picks us up by car? Alas, intuitions and perceptions of “creepiness” are highly subjective and difficult to generalize as social norms are being strained by new technologies and capabilities. And businesses that seek to create revenue opportunities by leveraging newly available data sources face huge challenges trying to operationalize such subjective notions into coherent business and policy strategies. This article presents a set of social and legal considerations to help individuals, engineers, businesses and policymakers navigate a world of new technologies and evolving social norms. These considerations revolve around concepts that we have explored in prior work, including enhanced transparency; accessibility to information in usable format; and the elusive principle of context. Show less

In this essay, we present some of the privacy and non-privacy risks of big data as well as directions for potential solutions. In a previous paper, we argued that the central tenets of the current privacy framework, the principles of data minimization and purpose limitation, are severely strained by the big data technological and business reality. Here, we assess some of the other problems raised by pervasive big data analysis. In their book, “A Legal Theory for Autonomous Artificial Agents,”… Show more

In this essay, we present some of the privacy and non-privacy risks of big data as well as directions for potential solutions. In a previous paper, we argued that the central tenets of the current privacy framework, the principles of data minimization and purpose limitation, are severely strained by the big data technological and business reality. Here, we assess some of the other problems raised by pervasive big data analysis. In their book, “A Legal Theory for Autonomous Artificial Agents,” Samir Chopra and Larry White note that “as we increasingly interact with these artificial agents in unsupervised settings, with no human mediators, their seeming autonomy and increasingly sophisticated functionality and behavior, raises legal and philosophical questions.” In this article we argue that the focus on the machine is a distraction from the debate surrounding data driven ethical dilemmas, such as privacy, fairness and discrimination. The machine may exacerbate, enable, or simply draw attention to the ethical challenges, but it is humans who must be held accountable. Instead of vilifying machine-based data analysis and imposing heavy-handed regulation, which in the process will undoubtedly curtail highly beneficial activities, policymakers should seek to devise agreed-upon guidelines for ethical data analysis and profiling. Such guidelines would address the use of legal and technical mechanisms to obfuscate data; criteria for calling out unethical, if not illegal, behavior; categories of privacy and non-privacy harms; and strategies for empowering individuals through access to data in intelligible form Show less

The paper seeks to explain the market factors driving companies to provide an increasingly wide range of integrated services to consumers. We point to consumer demand for interoperability; the need for companies to maintain their channel to the consumer across multiple platforms and devices; the need for access to social content and signals; and innovative data uses that benefit consumers.

Expansions in data collection and new integrated uses have repeatedly been the cause of privacy… Show more

The paper seeks to explain the market factors driving companies to provide an increasingly wide range of integrated services to consumers. We point to consumer demand for interoperability; the need for companies to maintain their channel to the consumer across multiple platforms and devices; the need for access to social content and signals; and innovative data uses that benefit consumers.

Expansions in data collection and new integrated uses have repeatedly been the cause of privacy concerns. But rather than impose new obligations on companies solely because of factors such as comprehensiveness of data, we propose a logical extension of the concept of context, which was introduced by the White House and FTC reports earlier this year. When data is used in new contexts, corporate practices should be judged by the nature of such new contexts and the communication needed to engage consumers without creating a “privacy lurch.” Important factors to consider include the nature of the new context; the value of the new data use; and the expectations a consumer may have developed with respect to a given “brand.” An evaluation based on this “enhanced context” model may warrant a decision to rely solely on good communication without providing consumers with additional choice. Alternatively, it may call for consumer opt-out rights or even express consent, if the nature of the shift in context and supporting factors so warrant.
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In our paper, we describe the various online tracking technologies deployed by industry and the different purposes of online behavioral tracking. We lay out the existing regulatory framework applicable to online behavioral tracking in the European Union and United States and address some of the existing proposals for regulatory reform. Finally, we discuss our views with respect to the desirable allocation of responsibility among users, businesses and policymakers.

Privacy advocates and data regulators increasingly decry the era of big data as they observe the growing ubiquity of data collection and the increasingly robust uses of data enabled by powerful processors and unlimited storage. Researchers, businesses, and entrepreneurs vehemently point to concrete or anticipated innovations that may be dependent on the default collection of large data sets. We call for the development of a model where the benefits of data for businesses and researchers are… Show more

Privacy advocates and data regulators increasingly decry the era of big data as they observe the growing ubiquity of data collection and the increasingly robust uses of data enabled by powerful processors and unlimited storage. Researchers, businesses, and entrepreneurs vehemently point to concrete or anticipated innovations that may be dependent on the default collection of large data sets. We call for the development of a model where the benefits of data for businesses and researchers are balanced against individual privacy rights. Such a model would help determine whether processing can be justified based on legitimate business interest or only subject to individual consent, and whether consent must be structured as opt-in or opt-out. Show less

Embedding Privacy into the Design of
Electricity Conservation