Keynote Talk:

Understanding Privacy and Identity in the Digital Age

In the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data era, identifying the degree of autonomy and self-determination  individuals enjoy becomes an increasingly difficult task. This is because we always more blindly rely on  automated systems recommending us “solutions” to many current and even future issues of daily life. Reflections on our freedom to choose and freely think strictly relate to the concept of identity, here intended  as the combination of the main qualities, characteristics, and inclinations individuals use for self-representing  themselves or representing themselves to others. Today, some modern technologies challenge our freedom to  build up our identity from a dual perspective. On the one hand, e.g., targeted advertising and other nudging  techniques capitalise on our “onlife” behaviours influencing them inter alia, to increase the sales of certain  products or alter voting behaviours in view of political elections. On the other hand, those  consumers/users/citizens who are aware of the mechanisms through which such instruments work might  question themselves whenever confronted with the offer of products/services which either do not respect their  self-perception or show inferences about them corresponding to their self-perception but highlighting intimate  spheres of their personality that they do not usually share with others – e.g., making those accessible to a  restricted number of designated persons or just to their intellectual exploration. Such circumstances might make individuals feel vulnerable, exposed, and violated, especially when it comes to their privacy. Indeed,  under international human rights law, similar phenomena would certainly call into question the rights of  privacy and data protection, which play a fundamental role in shielding individuals against unwarranted or  excessively intrusive attention, maintaining “private spaces” where freely develop one’s personality and  identity. 
Against this background, this open-ended and participatory talk will hopefully raise awareness among the  general public on the various ways in which our technologically mediated interaction with service providers  and other consumers/users/citizens influences our identity in both online and “real world” environments.

Francesco Paolo Levantino