Are we trading our freedom and privacy in exchange for safety?

Since internet has become part of our lives, and even more since social media have become increasingly part of our lives, we have been providing governments and private companies – starting from the so-called GAFA (Google-Amazon-Facebook-Apple) with a growing amount of what has become the most valued commodity today: personal data. This data is used in the public interest – to monitor, plan and forecast public policies – for business – to sell advertisement that match our alleged needs – and for safety – to prevent and monitor diseases or disorders.

But the frontier between use and abuse is rather blurry, and we have many examples on how data can be used for the bad – mass surveillance, sneaky advertising or for inducing unwanted behaviour. This evening, we welcome two journalists, Andreas Vou and Alexander Fanta, who did extensive research on the influence of the so-called Big Tech on public life and citizens’ privacy – on Voxeurop among others – because we believe it is one of the major issues of our times.