Big Data, Data Brokers and the Business of Tracking
Julie Brill has served as a Federal Trade Commissioner since 2010. She has received several national awards for her work protecting consumers. At the FTC, Commissioner Brill has been a staunch advocate of defending consumer privacy, especially with regard to online and mobile technologies. She supports the creation and implementation of ways to provide consumers with better information and control over the collection and use of their personal online information.
Before becoming a commissioner, Ms. Brill served as senior deputy attorney general and chief of consumer protection and antitrust in North Carolina (2009-2010), and as assistant attorney general for consumer protection and antitrust for Vermont (1988-2009). She earned her J.D. degree from New York University, and has taught as a lecturer at Columbia’s School of Law.
About this Lecture
In today’s economy, consumers’ personal information is big business. Uses of personal information can improve services, make our lives more convenient, and even provide solutions to important social challenges. However, a world awash in personal information also carries risks for consumers. Many consumers are unaware of “data brokers,” that gather massive amounts of data, from online and offline sources, and combine them into profiles about each of us. They examine each piece of information they hold about us—where we live, where we work and how much we earn, our race, our daily online and off line activities, our interests, our health conditions and our overall financial status—to create a narrative about our past, present, and even our future lives. Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill will discuss the importance of protecting privacy and other consumer interests to ensure our privacy interests are appropriately protected, and to enable useful big data analytics to reach its full potential.
Helpful Links
Data Brokers
Data brokers make money by selling your personal information
CBS 60 Minutes
09 March 2014
Big Data and Consumer Privacy
Brill addresses Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
20 February 2014
Reclaim Your Name
Talk about online privacy in the NYU Sloan Lecture Series
(Her presentation runs 18:20-52:00)
23 October 2013
Keynote address with the same title