Good Data – reasons to be cheerful about our digital future

What if targeted advertising contributed to global justice? What if Big Tech companies distributed more power than they consolidate? What if the greatest benefits to society come from putting more, rather than less, data into the public domain?

On Friday 19th November 2021, we heard from data expert Sam Gilbert, author of Good Data: An Optimist’s Guide to Our Digital Future, about why we should be more optimistic about our digital future.

We’re living in a moment of extreme pessimism about data and digital technology, Sam stated – but there’s another side to the story.

This event aimed to challenge all preconceptions about data, privacy, and Big Tech. In this original and provocative talk, Sam offered a fresh perspective on pressing questions about our digital future that are usually seen through the frame of ‘surveillance capitalism’.

Sam is an affiliated researcher at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. An expert in data-driven marketing, Sam was employee number one and chief marketing officer at Bought By Many, an award-winning fintech start-up named as one of Wired’s hottest start-ups in Europe and ranked in the Sunday Times TechTrack100 list of the UK’s fastest-growing companies. Previously, he was head of strategy and development at the data company Experian and head of consumer finance at Santander. He lives in Copenhagen.

A recording of the event is available here.