The Hay 30 – Lina DENCIK

The leaks by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden have transformed our understanding of our daily communication through social media, email and mobile phones. Scholars from Cardiff University’s research project Digital Citizenship and Surveillance Society will discuss the practices, implications and broader meanings of mass surveillance. Does it work? How does it work, and who and what is monitored? How does it affect civil rights? Have we been properly informed, and how should the media report? How can we protect ourselves?

We are living in a society increasingly driven by the technical ability to turn our activities and behaviour into data points that can be tracked and profiled. This is often said to advance responses to a range of social problems but these data processes can also affect individuals or entire communities that may be denied services and access to opportunities, or wrongfully targeted and exploited. What does this mean for fairness and equality? Lina Dencik is a Senior Lecturer at the Cardiff School of Journalism.