Author and law professor Sarah Lamdan visits WC to discuss data cartels

By Faith Jarrell

Student Life Editor

On Wednesday, April 17 and Thursday, April 18, keynote speaker and law professor from the City University of New York School of Law, Sarah Lamdan, made an apperance on campus to discuss her new book, “Data Cartels: the companies that control and monetize our information.” 

According to Lamdan’s website, “Data Cartels” is a book “demonstrating how the entities mining, commodifying, and selling our data and informational resources perputate social inequalities and threaten the democratic sharing of knowledge.”

Wednesday evening at 6 p.m., Lamdan sat at a panel in Hynson Lounge to discuss her book “Data Cartels” alongside Alison Macrina, who is the founder of the Library Freedom Project, and Professor Kyle Wilson. 

The panel was followed by a reception where Lamdan’s books were being sold and signed.

At 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, students could have breakfast with both Lamdan and Macrina in the Miller Library Newlin Room. After that, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, there was an open classroom with Lamdan and  Macrina as well in the Newlin Room, where attendees could interact with Lamdan and get a more personalized experience with the speaker. The experience was similar to a professor’s drop in hours.

The events were put on as a part of the Communications and Media Studies Speaker Series and was co-sponsored by the Library and Academic Technology, William James Forum Fund, Phi Beta Kappa, the Holstein Ethics Fund, as well as the Math and Computer Science Departments.

Public services librarian Andrea Boothby Rice referred to the events as “many opportunities to learn from Sarah Lamdan.”

“Concerns around data collections practices, individual privacy and lack of government regulation was also discussed at length.  The panel represented a fairly broad range of perspectives including Alison Macrina of the Library Freedom Project and Dr. Kyle Wilson.  I thought they all offered insight and gave a good deal for us to think about as we ended the evening,” Rice said. 

Accordin to Rice, not only did Lamdan talk about her professional work, but also how her work affected her social life.

“Sarah’s work made her the target of harassment from these companies and she was repeatedly threatened with legal action, but she stood by her research and is working to bring these continued collection practices to light,” Rice said. “Greater regulation and ethics driving tech companies are going to be needed if we are to reign those practices in.”

Photo courtesy of the Communications and Media Studies Department

Photo Caption: Environmental law professor Sarah Lamdan visited the Washington College campus for two days as the next keynote speaker in the Communications and Media Studies Speaker Series.

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