ConfPad

Data is important. It's the biggest resource of the 21st century, it can be processed to incredibly precise and powerful ends, and it can be used in many ways, good and bad. Yet we're treating data as rows in a database or files on a hard drive. In 2050, you can probably look up a presidential candidate's facebook feed from 2007. People today are happily uploading their daily routines, messages, locations, preferences, conversations, and opinions. They don't yet understand what their data could do, yet it lies in the hands of companies happy to twist and churn through the data for their own needs. As a species, we are fundamentally unprepared for the age of data. The world has changed. It's imperative we start building systems that treat user data as a private, responsible, actionable resource - so people trust technology. We will discuss how data is different in the 21st century - how every detail is aggregated and catalogued like never before. How 3rd parties happily pass around and eat your data. How companies are basically superpowers with the personal data at their disposal. We will discuss how we cannot assume people's assumptions about data. How what's private to you may be open for me. How what's public information to you may be death to another. How even minuscule tidbits like a light sensor can lead to horrible consequences. In the end, we will discuss how to tie your users to their data. Enabling data to be exported and deleted as they wish. How to handle backups and 3rd party services. How to tell consumers about your policy and why you want their data. We will debate the morals of manipulation and how you, as one who builds one of these 21st century data machines, play a very big role.