Federal Trade Commissioner to Speak at URI

Federal Trade Commissioner to Speak at URI

Julie Brill, a Federal Trade Commissioner, known for her work on protecting consumers and an advocate of defending consumer privacy with an emphasis on online and mobile technologies, will speak Wednesday, Nov. 12 at 7:30 p.m. at the University of Rhode Island.

The free, public lecture by Brill, to be held in Edwards Hall, 64 Upper College Road, on the Kingston campus, is part of URI’s 2014 Honors Colloquium, “Cybersecurity & Privacy.”

The presenting sponsor for the entire colloquium is Cox Business. Also thanks to the generosity of Cox Business, a free iPad mini will be given away at each event. You must attend the event to have a chance to win.

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Big Data, Data Brokers and the Business of Tracking

Brill’s talk, titled, “Big Data, Data Brokers and the Business of Tracking,” will address how consumers’ personal information has become big business. Uses of personal information can improve services, make lives more convenient, and even provide solutions to important social challenges.

However, Brill argues a world awash in personal information also carries risks for consumers. Many consumers are unaware of “data brokers,” that gather massive amounts of data, from online and offline sources, and combine them into profiles about each of us.

They examine each piece of information they hold about us—where we live, where we work and how much we earn, our race, our daily online and off line activities, our interests, our health conditions and our overall financial status—to create a narrative about our past, present, and even our future lives, according to Brill.

She will explain how these data brokers also know what our faces look like, and the importance of protecting our privacy.

Brill bio

Brill earned her law degree from New York University and has taught at Columbia’s School of Law.

Prior to her work at the FTC, Brill served as senior deputy attorney general and chief of consumer protection and antitrust in North Carolina as well as assistant attorney general for Consumer Protection and Antitrust for the State of Vermont for more than 20 years.

Brill has been named the International Association of Privacy Professionals Privacy Leader of the Year, and the New York University School of Law Alumna of the Year.

For more information on Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill’s presentation, visit here.