Contextual integrity and differential privacy: Theory vs. application with Sebastian Benthall

What if privacy could be as dynamic and socially aware as the communities it aims to protect? Sebastian Benthall, a senior research fellow from NYU’s Information Law Institute, shows us how privacy is complex. He uses Helen Nissenbaum’s work with contextual integrity and concepts in differential privacy to explain the complexity of privacy. Our talk explains how privacy is not just about protecting data but also about following social rules in different situations, from healthcare to education. These rules can change privacy regulations in big ways.

Show notes

Intro: Sebastian Benthall (0:03)

• Research: Designing Fiduciary Artificial Intelligence (Benthall, Shekman)
• Integrating Differential Privacy and Contextual Integrity (Benthall, Cummings)

Exploring differential privacy and contextual integrity (1:05)

• Discussion about the origins of each subject
• How are differential privacy and contextual integrity used to enforce each other?

Accepted context or legitimate context? (9:33)

• Does context develop from what society accepts over time?
• Approaches to determine situational context and legitimacy

Next steps in contextual integrity (13:35)

• Is privacy as we know it ending?
• Areas where integrated differential privacy and contextual integrity can help (Cummings)

Interpretations of differential privacy (14:30)

• Not a silver bullet
• New questions posed from NIST about its application

Privacy determined by social norms (20:25)

• Game theory and its potential for understanding social norms

Agents and governance: what will ultimately decide privacy? (25:27)

• Voluntary disclosures and the biases it can present towards groups that are least concerned with privacy
• Avoiding self-fulfilling prophecy from data and context

What did you think? Let us know.

Do you have a question or a discussion topic for the AI Fundamentalists? Connect with them to comment on your favorite topics:

• LinkedIn - Episode summaries, shares of cited articles, and more.
• YouTube - Was it something that we said? Good. Share your favorite quotes.
• Visit our page - see past episodes and submit your feedback! It continues to inspire future episodes.