Helen Nissenbaum | Data Obfuscation for Resistance and Protest

Ubiquitous collection and analysis of data has dramatically reshaped the nature of contemporary surveillance. Refusal is not an option as data exchange is an inherent condition of many essential, yet fundamentally asymmetric interactions with government as well as private, commercial actors. Obfuscation — the production of misleading, false, or ambiguous data — offers one vector of resistance, but when and whether it can be defended on practical and ethical grounds are crucial issues which must be addressed. Building on, Obfuscation: A User’s Guide to Privacy and Protest, (with F. Brunton, MIT Press 2015), Nissenbaum will highlight compelling scientific questions surrounding data obfuscation and argue for its safeguarding in law and policy. Helen Nissenbaum is Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, and Computer Science, at New York University, where she is also Director of the Information Law Institute. Her work spans social, ethical, and political dimensions of information technology and digital media. She has written and edited nine books, including the recently released Obfuscation: A User’s Guide for Privacy and Protest with Finn Brunton (MIT, 2015), Privacy, Big Data and the Public Good: Frameworks for Engagement, with J. Lane, V. Stodden and S. Bender (Cambridge, 2014), Values at Play in Digital Games, with M. Flanagan (MIT Press, 2014), and Privacy in Context: Technology, Policy, and the Integrity of Social Life (Stanford, 2010) and her research publications have appeared in journals of philosophy, politics, law, media studies, information studies, and computer science. The National Science Foundation, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Ford Foundation, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the National Coordinator have supported her work on privacy, trust online, and security, as well as several studies of values embodied in computer system design, search engines, digital games, facial recognition technology, and health information systems. Nissenbaum holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Stanford University and a B.A. (Hons) from the University of the Witwatersrand. Before joining the faculty at NYU, she served as Associate Director of the Center for Human Values at Princeton University.