Join us and our expert panel as we weigh up the potential of social media data for targeting products and personalising services against concerns over personal privacy and security

With over 2.72 billion users, social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook generate vast quantities of data every day. Analysis of this data can help us try to understand how people think and act.  Social media analysis played a key role in guiding Obama’s 2012 election campaign and some credit agencies have used social media data to determine whether to grant loans to individuals. But concerns have been raised about the implications for privacy, security and public trust.

Who can access our data and under what circumstances? What can social media data practically be used for? What are social media platforms doing to ensure users are fully aware of how their data could be used and allow them to opt out of data sharing? Should we be more careful about what information we share on social media?

Our expert speakers include:
- Professor Helen Margetts (Director of the Oxford Internet Institute [University of Oxford] and Faculty Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute)
- Dr Jyn Schultze-Melling LL.M (Director for Privacy Policy, Facebook Europe)
- Professor David Vincent  (Privacy historian at the Open University, and author of  'Privacy. A Short History')

The event will be chaired by Timandra Harkness (science communicator and author of' 'Big Data: Does Size Matter?')

The Data Debates is a collaboration between the AHRC, the Alan Turing Institute, the British Library, and the ESRC and aims to stimulate discussion on issues surrounding big data, its potential uses, and its implications for society.

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