Responsible Tech Mixer & Data Action Day Highlights and Recap

(Thursday, February 1, 2024) All Tech Is Human is thrilled to release a special panel discussion from our Responsible Tech Mixer & Data Action Day on January 29, 2024, focused on raising awareness and fostering data activism among young people, university students, privacy advocates, and all individuals concerned about their digital privacy!

This conversation was also featured on the popular podcast SHIFT; listen to the episode here.

Tracy Chou (CEO, Block Party), Julia Angwin (award-winning investigative journalist), Ginny Fahs (Director, Product R&D, Consumer Reports), and moderator Jennifer Strong (Producer and Journalist), gathered for a discussion about how to empower people and make informed choices about one’s online presence. This gathering was made possible through the generous support of Consumer Reports.

“What is the right level of alarm to express publicly?” Fahs asked. “Working at a consumer organization, we know that 96 percent of consumers are concerned about their privacy and security online. But I still think that very far from 96 percent of consumers are doing much about that other than just being fearful.”

Fahs explained how Consumer Reports is addressing the widespread fear among consumers through its Permission Slip app.

It's one of the reasons why we've put so much investment at Consumer Reports into this product called Permission Slip, which is an easy to use tool. It's a mobile app. You can download it and swipe through companies, understand what data companies are collecting about you, and then use your right to opt-out, use your right to delete, and just making those rights feel more accessible so that when people are despairing or having some fear, there is a place to turn. It's not going to solve every problem, but it is a thing that one can do. I think that that is a way to channel some of this kind of fear that people feel even if they're not expressing it all the time into like an action one can take.”

Chou addressed the individual safeguards people create for themselves — and the responsibilities of their network to support their privacy decisions.

“Everybody has worked out these ways to safeguard themselves. Everybody is conscious of how they move through space online and in the physical world.” Chou said.

The full panel is now available to view.

All Tech Is Human brings together more than 200 people every month at Betaworks in New York City to highlight a global community of people working to co-create a better tech future. To date, every gathering has reached venue capacity and more than 3k unique people have registered to attend.

Watch the panel now:

Video Markers:
00:00: Introduction and welcome remarks by All Tech Is Human Founder and President David Ryan Polgar
00:32: All Tech Is Human’s vision
01:49: All Tech Is Human’s community-building
01:52: How to Get Involved with All Tech is Human
09:09: Introduction of Panelists
10:19: Personal Experiences with Data Privacy
16:47: The Future of Data Privacy
20:09: Tools for Data Privacy
26:50: Hope for the Future of Data Privacy

About the panelists:

Tracy Chou is an entrepreneur and software engineer known for her work advocating for diversity and inclusion in tech. She is currently the founder and CEO of Block Party, which builds tools for online safety and anti-harassment. Their latest product, Privacy Party, makes it easy to find and fix privacy risks on social.

Julia Angwin is an award-winning investigative journalist, a bestselling author, a New York Times contributing Opinion writer and a Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.

Ginny Fahs is the Director, Product R&D - Innovation Lab at Consumer Reports. Prior to joining Consumer Reports, Ginny was a software engineer at Uber and a Technology Policy Fellow at the Aspen Institute. At Aspen, she focused on cybersecurity for the elderly and contributed research and design prototypes that are currently being adopted by U.S. government agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Trade Commission, and Department of Homeland Security.

Moderated by:

Jennifer Strong is a producer and journalist based in New York City. She's the creator of several top science and technology podcasts for newsrooms including ProPublica, The Wall Street Journal, and MIT Technology Review. Her latest show, SHIFT, launched in 2023 and is distributed by public radio's PRX. Jennifer’s reporting has been recognized by awards juries more than thirty times, including six Webby and three Ambie (Podcast Academy Award) nominations. Her narrative podcasts were finalist selections at the New York Festivals for the last two years, and a finalist for Podcast of the Year by The Drum Awards in London for a taping she did inside an experimental fighter plane.