Data & Privacy

In the second part of this extended interview with Real Media, Professor Bev Skeggs speaks about surveillance capitalism. With the fast roll-out of "pre-emptive surveillance" gadgets, the internet of things, and wearable tech, we are entering an age where huge non-transparent corporations, paying little or no tax, are supplying information to employers and insurance companies to control, monetise and...

In partnership with INSURGE intelligence - Originally published on INSURGE intelligence and Medium What do NATO, private military contractors, aerospace firms, wine merchants, the NSA, Trump, British property tycoons, Russian oligarchs, and Big Oil have in common? The world’s largest social network Editorial assistance by Andrew Markell and Gunther Sonnenfeld Imagine a world in which everybody gave away their freedom, willingly, in...

By Mattha Busby Funeral comparison websites often ask people to enter their personal details so they can optimise their services, before they provide you with a comparison. Once they have your details, however, some sites will simply tell you: “We'll get in touch with you shortly and find you the perfect funeral plan.” This is because they are in fact shell sites...

In the fourth episode of Real Media's "Join The Dots," Matt Kennard and Kam Sandhu discuss data, fintech, privacy, and the future. This episode features expert contributions from Dr. Tom Fisher (Privacy International researcher), Brett Scott (financial activist), Beverley Skeggs (professor of Sociology, Goldsmiths), and Dr Usha Ramanathan (indpendent law researcher from India). Between them, they reveal the ways...

By Kam Sandhu @KamBass Since the Indian government introduced and accelerated its national biometric ID scheme –  now the largest biometrics database in the world – Usha Ramanathan, a law researcher,  has become engulfed in a subject she never thought she would be poring over; privacy. In August, Ramanathan was part of a group of activists, advocates and legal professionals who...

The Glassroom is an exhibition 'looking into your online life.' It runs in London until the 12th of November.   It gives the public a chance to see some of the ways in which our data is being used by companies, and what's going on behind the 'free services' we sign up to.    We spoke to Manuel Beltran, a speaker at Glassroom who...

In the second part of our interview with financial activist Brett Scott, he takes us through the relationships between the banking sector and emerging financial technologies. What are the limitations of Blockchain? And what will happen to the relationship between tech firms and the state as the GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft) group become more powerful?

'There is a chronic problem in technology ethics right now. There's no economic incentives for people to ever tell you what the implications of the technology are.' Brett Scott, financial activist and author of The Heretic's Guide to Global Finance, talks to Real Media about the push towards a cashless society - who's driving it, what are their motives,...