The Third Winchester Conference on Trust, Risk, Information and the Law will be held on Wednesday 27th April 2016 at the West Downs Campus, University of Winchester, UK. Our overall theme for this conference will be:
‘Information is power’
“Knowledge is power. Information is power. The secreting or hoarding of knowledge or information may be an act of tyranny camouflaged as humility.”
The flow of information can be fundamental to building trust, assessing risks, understanding rights and enforcing law. Information (Big and small) can enable consumers to understand how their personal data will be shared; a social worker to identify a child at risk of abuse; the police to make a connection between a terrorist and a ‘clean skin’. There are those who would argue that all information, including personal and even sensitive data, should be shared more freely and openly, and that risks of doing so are overstated. It could even be said that hiding data is selfish. But an aspect of power is control, an ability to decide when, how and with whom information should be disclosed. Surely a Government intelligence service should be able to keep information secret if disclosure might threaten its ability to disrupt terrorists? Why shouldn’t an individual be able to keep medical information confidential even if doing so would make medical research less effective? Should the ‘right-to-be-forgotten’ be upheld even if this might result in a “Swiss cheese internet”? Technology has given power to some and taken it away from others, yet could technology contribute to restoring an information balance? And how does the law need to change in order to address the power of information in this technological age?
Both the Information Commissioner’s Office and the UK’s Digital Catapult will be working with the 2016 conference organisers to oversee and chair workshops/breakout sessions.
Papers are welcomed on any aspect of the conference theme. This might include although is not restricted to:
- Big Data and algorithmic analysis of information;
- State surveillance, national security and the political landscape;
- Open data, freedom of information and government accountability;
- Information about wrongdoing;
- Data as property: ownership and control;
- Privacy enhancing technologies and data accountability;
- Medical and DNA data sharing.
In addition, Matt Stroud, Head of Personal Data & Trust at Digital Catapult will introduce the conference to Digital Catapult’s Personal Data & Trust Network and will chair a special session focusing on trust and data issues. For this session, papers are welcomed in particular on the following themes:
- An individual’s right to control or access their personal data – should there be limits?
- Challenges of enforcing trust frameworks across international borders;
- Tensions between international trust frameworks and local democracy;
- What are the theoretical limits to prediction of individual and group actions?
Applicants who wish their paper to be considered for this special Digital Catapult Trust & Personal Data session should indicate this clearly in their abstract.
Proposals for workshops are also welcome. Workshops offer organisers the opportunity to curate panels or research/scholarship activities on an aspect of the conference theme in order to facilitate interdisciplinary discussion.
The conference and this call for papers/workshops is open to academics, postgraduate students, policy-makers and practitioners, and in particular those working in law, computer science & technology, data science, information rights, privacy, compliance, statistics, probability, law enforcement & justice, behavioural science and health and social care.
Abstracts for Papers of no more than 300 words are invited for consideration. Successful applicants will be allocated 15-20 minutes for presentation of their paper plus time for questions and discussion.
Workshop proposals of no more than 500 words should summarise the workshop theme and goals, organising committee and schedule of speakers, panels and/or talks. Workshops should be timed to be 1.5-2 hours in length.
Abstracts and proposals, contained in a Word document or PDF, should be emailed to Marion Oswald at the address below. Please include name, title, institution/organisation details and email correspondence address (and indicate if you wish your paper to be considered for the special Digital Catapult session).
The deadline for submission of abstracts/proposals is Friday 29 January 2016. Successful applicants will be notified by 19 February 2016.
Speakers/workshop organisers will be entitled to the early registration discounted conference fee of £79 and will be required to book a place at the conference by 29 February in order to guarantee inclusion of their paper/workshop.
Speakers will be invited to submit their paper for inclusion in a special edition of the newly-launched open access eJournal, Information Rights, Policy & Practice.
To book a place at the conference, please click here to visit the Winchester University Store.
For more information, please contact Marion Oswald marion.oswald@winchester.ac.uk
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