Archive for category: Blog

On December 07-08, 2023, Barbara Lazarotto attended the Global Data Law Conference Series: Comparative Data Law, a conference that addressed the critical role of data as a central and versatile resource in the 21st century, shaping the competitiveness of economies and societies. Co-organized by the University of Passau Research Centre for Law and Digitalisation (FREDI) and the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, the conference emphasizes a contextual and decolonial comparative law approach, considering cultural, economic, and infrastructural dimensions of data governance. The event is the final installment of a three-tier conference series on Global Data Law, contributing to a broader research agenda on Global Data Law and policy.

Barbara presented her research titled “Unlocking Data Sharing Dilemmas: A Comparative Analysis of Business-to-Government Data Sharing Laws and the European Data Act Proposal”, a presentation that aimed to explore the delicate balance between sharing and accessing privately held data by governments and the data monopolies held by big tech companies.

Her presentation focused on examining the intricacies of business-to-government data sharing, drawing parallels between the structural choices found in existing United States municipal rules and those outlined in the EU Data Strategy. Barbara explored The Data Act’s proposal of compulsory data-sharing hypotheses for local governments, particularly municipalities, to address the unequal distribution of data benefits. She highlighted the strong resistance from the private sector, mirroring similar debates in the United States where various cities implemented business-to-government data-sharing rules.

Barbara’s presentation also delved into the potential advantages of redistributing data value to society. She emphasized the opportunity to challenge the status quo and break down data monopolies, creating a more equitable system where the benefits derived from privately held data are shared with the broader community. This exploration was identified as crucial for policymakers seeking to strike a balance between fostering innovation and protecting individual privacy.

The conference proceedings will be published by Springer Verlag in the series „MPI Studies on Intellectual Property and Competition Law“ in 2o24.

Barbara’s secondment at Université Paul Sabatier III in Toulouse proved to be an invaluable experience, propelling her research to a multidisciplinary field. This immersive collaboration with experts from the field of data science, allowed Barbara to explore the transformative potential of data commons in fostering open and collaborative data access.

Central to her secondment was a comprehensive case study on the creation of a data commons for electric-powered devices. This hands-on approach enabled Barbara to delve into the intricate details of data governance and data sharing mechanisms, gaining a profound understanding of the challenges and opportunities associated with data commons implementation. The multidisciplinary environment at Université Paul Sabatier III provided Barbara with a unique perspective, exposing her to a wide spectrum of research methodologies and data analysis techniques. This cross-disciplinary exposure enriched her own research, enabling her to expand her focus beyond legal considerations and delve into the data science aspects of data commons.

Barbara’s secondment at Université Paul Sabatier III marked a pivotal moment in her research trajectory. The exposure to diverse perspectives, the hands-on experience with data commons implementation, and the exploration of a multitude of use cases have undoubtedly shaped her understanding of the topic and fueled her passion for advancing the field of data commons research.

The LeADS Partners

Tellu is an SME experiencing significant growth since 2017, going from 5 employees in 2017 currently being 17 employees expecting to be 25 employees end of 2020. Tellu main offering includes TelluCloud an eHealth and welfare integration platform for connectivity, device management, edge computing, data gathering, data processing, and presentation as well as SaaS solutions for remote patient monitoring, video based supervision, and Personnel safety. The platform offers complete management and trustworthy execution and processing across the IoT, edge, and cloud space.

ESR9, Xengie Doan, went to visit Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA) Pisa in February and March 2023 under the supervision of Professor Francesca Chiaromonte. They are a statistician who works with biomedical data and other types of data. While the data collected in Xengie’s research is largely qualitative data with a small sample size, it was interesting to explore methods to analyze it and ideate on how it would be different with large data.  This coincided with the Statistical Learning & Large Data, Modules 1 and 2 courses which Xengie attended. Classes covered a large span of methods to cover the overall concepts, then going over examples in R at the end. This would help with code examples for any future analyses. It was very interesting to get insight into different statistical learning and large data methods from an expert in the field.

The industry secondment is at Tellu, where Xengie is currently visiting until November 2023. They have a use case where a patient and their next-of-kin consents to help with some of the responsibilities that traditionally healthcare personnel would do 100% of the time. This is relevant to their topic studying collective consent models. Some activities include reviewing policies or consent forms and documentation to create methods and tools to improve the consent process. Interviews will be then carried out to validate those methods and tools based on feedback from members of the company. As the secondment is still ongoing, insights are still pending but should be shared in a paper next year.

Barbara presented her research titled “The history of datafication and the rise of the concept of smart”, a presentation which aimed to draw the historical roots of datafication, tracing it back to the Industrial Revolution. Throughout her presentation, Barbara unraveled the intricate web of beliefs that have given rise to “technological solutionism” and the phenomenon of “smart governments.”

Barbara began her exploration by tracing the deep historical roots of technological determinism. From the advent of the steam engine to the information age, the belief that technology is the primary driver of innovation and societal progress has been a persistent undercurrent.

The allure of technological solutionism lies in the belief that technology holds the answers to all problems. This worldview, deeply ingrained in contemporary society, has not only influenced individual attitudes but has also permeated governmental structures, paving the way for the rise of “smart governments.”

Barbara highlighted the lack of academic consensus on the precise definition of “smart governments.” However, she explained that the prevailing understanding views it as the utilization of diverse technologies by the public sector. This includes the incorporation of sensors, artificial intelligence, and big data to enhance governmental efficiency. This techno-deterministic outlook presupposes that technology is the primary driver of improved public administration.

In conclusion, Barbara’s presentation challenged the prevailing narrative of technological determinism and its manifestation in smart governments. By advocating for a more holistic approach that recognizes the intertwined nature of technological and socio-technical factors, she urged the audience to reconsider blind faith in technology as the sole driver of progress which can taint potential mechanisms of regulation, which tend to focus on technology as the sole solutions to all problems, disregarding other potential socio-technical solutions.

Barbara’s presentation was also reflected in a paper that will soon be published.

European Conference on Machine Learning and Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in Databases held in Turin, Italy between the 18th to the 22nd of September 2023. The conference took 5 days of insightful presentations given by researchers on machine learning and data mining. On the last day of the conference, the First Interdisciplinary Workshop on ML, Law and Society took place which aims to bring together researchers and practitioners from computer science, law, and psychology to discuss the non-functional tradeoffs, ethics, and law related to ML. The workshop started with a keynote speech given by Prof. Giovanni Comande. In his talk, Prof. Comande mentioned the ethical aspects of integrating AI and machine learning systems into our lives. He drew attention to crucial points in order to have a meaningful and lawful contribution of AI, we must also create common ethical ground rules. 

In the workshop, ESRs Fatma S. Doğan and Soumia El Mestari presented their paper titled: “Techniques to achieve anonymization of health data: When are they sufficient to be considered as legally compliant?” in which they have worked together with Dr Wilhelmina Maria Botes. In the study, they discussed the European Health Data Space(EHDS) and how it relates to using health data while aiming to keep it anonymized for secondary use purposes. They analyzed that the current stage of the EHDS proposal omits important points in terms of the operation of the secondary use framework. Further, they explored that achieving anonymization of various types of health data poses different challenging points in terms of technicality.  

ESRs received thoughtful questions and feedback from the participants and also attended enriching panels and keynotes at the conference. The keynote given by Kate Crawford was also enlightening in regard to not-so-known facts about AI technologies. She remarks that environmental effects, mining rare earth minerals, and immense human labor which has been used in order to develop AI technologies are often omitted. She resembles generative AI to magic since we don’t know the cost of building it as a result of big tech companies not being transparent. To improve this field, she suggests that we should re-think the training process along with fair working conditions. Also, more research on sustainable generative AI should take place, and openness in research should be increased since we are suffering from a lack of transparency. In a way, she shed light on shadowed parts of developing AI technologies and stated that if we know the true cost of AI technologies then we could be more conscious about what we want and what we don’t want, and our needs. Lastly, she mentioned her book named, Atlas of AI in which she explored deeply what she discussed.