Institute Hosts DSI Colloquium: Frank Pasquale [Video Available]

On Friday, November 4th, the Hariri Institute for Computing hosted Frank Pasquale (Professor of Law, University of Maryland) for a Data Science Initiative (DSI) Colloquium in collaboration with the Center for Reliable Information Systems & Cyber Security (RISCS) and BU/MIT Technology & Cyberlaw Clinic.

Pasquale’s talk, The Future of Fair Data Practices focused on components of his book, The Black Box Society, which proposes a number of principles to guide future data regulation in the United States. Pasquale began his lecture with a discussion of how scholars have described pervasive inaccuracy or unfairness in important data and models used in contexts ranging from education to finance to health care. He then analyzed the purpose of regulators in discovering problems in big data (or decision models based on it) by reviewing the files of both large firms and data brokers to find suspect data and to demand review of the sources of data. He spoke to the importance of this work in relieving the burden on individuals and creating a functioning system that addresses these issues and challenges.

The recorded lecture can be found here (BU login required).