[uknof] Invitation to participate in research about privacy and surveillance in the age of Edward Snowden

[Christian Fuchs]

Dear Internet professionals in the UKNOF community, This message may be of interest to those in the London region. The University of Westminster is currently involved in the European Union research project PACT (see http://www.projectpact.eu) that studies privacy and security in Europe. Since Edward Snowden’s revelations about the existence of the Prism system there have been a lot of discussions about privacy and surveillance in Europe. Given all the discussions about privacy and surveillance, ICT professionals dealing with personal data often ask themselves what can best be done to guarantee privacy and data protection for users. They are confronted with many questions about data use by their clients, customers, friends, and the public. PACT has developed a new method that makes it easier to answer which advantages and disadvantages information technologies pose in respect to personal data, privacy, and surveillance. We invite people concerned with big data, software/web companies and ICT professionals to participate in a test and assessment of this new method. There are two available dates when the tests of the new privacy assessment methodology takes place in the form of a focus group discussion: Monday, September 8, 2014: 13:00-15:30 Tuesday, September 9, 2014: 13:00-15:30 Location: Central London If you are interested to join on one of these two dates, then please get in touch with me. As a token of appreciation, you will receive hard copies of some of the project’s research reports that outline new insights about privacy and surveillance in the context of computing. You will be among the first people able to read these reports. Further information is also available here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rhmjb0jhrmalmvh/Information%20Sheet.pdf?dl=0 If this sounds interesting, then I’d be happy to hear back from you. Best, Christian Fuchs -- Christian Fuchs Professor of Social Media University of Westminster Communication and Media Research Institute, Centre for Social Media Research http://www.westminster.ac.uk/camri http://www.westminster.ac.uk/csmr christianfuchsw...@gmail.com   +44 (0) 20 7911 5000 ext. 67380