Benefits of data openness in a digital world

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• Sam Gilbert, Bennett Institute for Public Policy
• Monday 03 November 2025, 19:00-21:00
• Venue to be confirmed.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Peter Watson.

We are at a moment of extreme pessimism about data with news stories implicating social media and mobile phones in cyberespionage. To many this is a worrying state of affairs but are we worrying too much? In this talk I will argue that data openness and data-drive advertising are good things and are misunderstood. In particular data-driven advertising is not about controlling behaviour but involves targeting groups of people which brings economic benefits. Internet search data has been used to meet public health challenges such as providing insights into Zika and Ebola. I will argue we should be targeting the distribution of digital power rather than concerning ourselves with business models of particular companies.

This talk is part of the Cambridge Statistics Discussion Group (CSDG) series.

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