Talk: Designing Governable Computing Systems

Speaker: Daniel Weitzner , MIT Internet Policy Research Initiative

Date: Wednesday, March 03, 2021

Time: 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM Note: all times are in the Eastern Time Zone

Public: Yes

Location: https://mit.zoom.us/j/91482569225

Event Type: Seminar

Room Description:

Host: Hal Abelson, CSAIL MIT

Contact: Melanie Robinson, melrob@csail.mit.edu

Relevant URL:

Speaker URL: https://internetpolicy.mit.edu/daniel-weitzner/

Speaker Photo:
None

Reminders to: seminars@csail.mit.edu

Reminder Subject: TALK: Designing Governable Computing Systems

Abstract: Why is our society having such a hard time governing the new digital computing infrastructure? This talk presents new research in cybersecurity and privacy, offering a broad approach by which computer science can contribute systems that are better integrated with society’s public policy priorities. Our new approach to cybersecurity will provide previously unattainable cyber risk pricing metrics to guide private investment decisions, make cyber insurance markets more efficient, and shape cybersecurity regulations that are more effective. To address privacy needs, we propose changes to the underlying architecture of relational database systems to enable auditable conformance with state-of-the-art privacy values in laws such as the European Union General Data Protection Directive (GDPR). Taken together, this work suggests we can improve computing governance with new extensions of two key concepts in the theory of computation. First, we describe policy soundness: the property of a computing system that shows it is logically sound with respect to a given legal ruleset. Second, technical completeness: the property of a law or regulation which shows the rules are logically complete with respect to the dynamics of a given computing system. Building these kinds of abstractions into systems and laws can make computing systems more governable and thus more trustworthy..

Bio: Daniel J. Weitzner is 3Com Founders Principal Research Scientist, MIT CSAIL and Founding Director, MIT Internet Policy Research Initiative. His research interests include accountable systems, privacy, cybersecurity and online freedom of expression. He was United States Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Internet Policy in the White House under President Obama, is a founder of the Center for Democracy and Technology, led the World Wide Web Consortium’s public policy activities, and was Deputy Policy Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Weitzner has a JD from Buffalo Law School and a BA in Philosophy from Swarthmore College. He is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund, recipient of the International Association of Privacy Professionals Leadership Award (2013), the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award (2016), was named a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (2019) and is a member of Council on Foreign Relations.
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Topic: CSAIL Talk: Designing Governable Computing Systems
Time: Mar 3, 2021 04:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

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Research Areas:
AI & Machine Learning, Computer Architecture

Impact Areas:

This event is not part of a series.

Created by Melanie Robinson at Monday, February 22, 2021 at 11:55 AM.