PRIVACY Challenge seminar: Framing Privacy in Global Tech Infrastructures

The concept of privacy may be difficult to define but this does not hold back technology developers from delimiting it very specifically in their applications. Particularly large companies who design the infrastructure of modern communications – such as Google, Meta, and Apple – implement an interpretation of privacy in their infrastructures that is very limited and serves their interests. How do they frame privacy for billions of users and why in this way? And how should researchers investigate this?

The seminar is presented by Ine van Zeeland, senior researcher at SMIT (Studies in Media, Innovation and Technology) at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Before joining SMIT, Ine worked in marketing and communications, (web) editing and higher education, in the Netherlands, Romania and PR China. Ine conducts research into personal data protection practices in organisations. She has published research articles on such practices in the (retail) banking sector, the media sector, and smart cities. She currently investigates the re-use of personal health data for public policy purposes, as well as expectations of data use by public service media.

About the Challenge Seminars: PRIVACY hosts two Challenge Seminars each semester. Here, PRIVACY’s research team joins with invited experts on topics such as surveillance, privacy rights, medical ethics, work-life balance, or social cohesion, to pose mutual research and practice challenges.

The seminar is open to all, but registration is required. Please sign up here.