Digital Dilemmas of Human Data: Dependency, Necessity, and Protection of Privacy

This course investigates the political, technological, regulatory, and ethical dilemmas involved in working with systems transferring, gathering, and utilizing human data. The course will present participants with cases and novel threats that asks them to approach digital dilemmas from a variety of analytical venues – and challenges them to reflect on the strategic dependencies and values of their own organisations. Central themes of the course are highlighted by global rivalries on Information and Communications Technology such as 5G and Artificial Intelligence, state-led pursuits of Digital Autonomy and concerns of retaining political sovereignty in contentious partnering with Big Tech. Exploration of these themes invokes critical analysis of the necessity of surveillance versus the individual's right to privacy.

The course will introduce participants to wide-ranging debates surrounding concepts such as digital authoritarianism, extractive digital technologies, surveillance capitalism, weaponized dependence, decoupling of global supply chains, offensive and defensive use of human data etc.

These challenges are approached from the point of operating under the rule of law in a Nordic liberal democracy, navigating small and large state actors as well as politicized and securitized global relationships. The course will include a one-day seminar (together with core-course 2) on the special conditions for small states and for decision-making and strategic planning in a Scandinavian/Danish context.

• Challenges to and for liberal democracies in managing cyber and intelligence processes
• Security consequences of digital dilemmas in state-society relations
• The politics of public-private partnerships in critical infrastructure technologies
• Global strategic competition on advanced data generating and gathering systems
• Use, misuse, and abuse of private information to garner power and profit
• Regulatory responses to digital dilemmas
• Scandinavian/Danish perspectives and cases

Participants will be presented to a literature covering approximate 400 pages drawing on a blend of journal articles, (excerpts from) think tank reports and official documents as well as media coverage to keep the course relevant and informed of current events. Students will select a further 200 pages of literature with relevance to their chosen topic for the home assignment.

Books that will shape the course (chapters or excerpts will be considered)

• Marshall McLuhan “Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man”, “The Global Village”
• Shoshana Zuboff “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism”
• William C. Hannas, Didi Kirsten Tatlow: “China's Quest for Foreign Technology: Beyond Espionage”
• Brett Frischmann: “Re-Engineering Humanity”
• Cyrus Farivar: “Habeas Data: Privacy vs. the Rise of Surveillance Tech”
• R. Jason Cronk: “Strategic Privacy by Design”
• Ari Ezra Waldman: “Privacy as Trust: Information Privacy for an Information Age“

The students’ own work efforts (guideline) equal 27 hours per ECTS credit point. In total 135 hours in this course. The hours are distributed across preparation and class attendance, preparation for the exam, and the exam itself.