The balance between individual privacy and collective security has already been shifted by governments claiming more rights to monitor and control citizens in order to protect us. Our speakers have different views about where this lies and whether there could ever be a positive side to a loss of privacy. But now it is apparent that insights from big data can cure diseases, control epidemics, end congestion in our cities and aid the just distribution of natural resources. Withholding access to personal data undermines these social goods; the cost of personal privacy is counted in otherwise preventable deaths and inefficient and polluted cities. Privacy is selfish – which is why its days as a personal privilege are numbered. Or so the argument goes…

Politicians and corporations have always wanted to target us. But now they can do it cheaply, easily and at scale.

Zeynep Tufekci

Chaired by Marc Fennell, interviewer and host of The Feed SBS.

This conversation is part of the UNSW Grand Challenge on Living with 21st Century Technology, and was recorded live on stage at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas 2018.