Data, Democracy and Freedom with Susie Alegre

At no other time in history has technology and its use of data had the potential to promote or threaten our personal freedoms and democratic rights. Delving into this promise and peril is the focus of the ODPA's dedicated three-part podcast series – ‘Data, Democracy & Freedom’.

The series examines:
• how people’s information can be weaponized to undermine elections and democracy.
• How to preserve civil liberties and strike the right balance between national security/program delivery and upholding privacy rights.
• how technology may be influencing our freedom of thought and expression

In the third and final episde, ODPA Commissioner Brent Homan talks to human rights lawyer and author Susie Alegre. They explore tech-driven threats to our mental freedom - how algorithms feed off our personal data and filter content which end up shaping our everyday thoughts and choices from what we eat to how we vote.

"The information that is delivered to us, is often personalized based on inferences about what we want to see, what we might think already, what we might be open to thinking. And those inferences are available to be bought on the open market. So people can pay in order to make sure that we see the messages that suit them. And that is completely different to the way freedom of expression and freedom of information operated before the 21st century. And really highlights the importance of the protection of our personal data.”

Susie is a legal pioneer in digital human rights, in particular the impact of AI on the human rights of freedom of thought and opinion. 

She founded the Isle of Man’s Island Rights Initiative, has an MA Hons in French and Philosophy from the University of Edinburgh, a Masters in European and International Human Rights Law from the University of Nantes and a PhD in International Human Rights Law from the University of Roehampton.

Susie is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance and Innovation (CIGI) and is fluent in French and Spanish. Susie has worked with many NGOs including Amnesty International and international organisations including the UN, the EU and the Council of Europe.

Her first book ‘Freedom to Think’ won Financial Times Technology Book of the Year 2022 and was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Christopher Bland Prize 2023. She has recently published a second book ‘Human Rights, Robot Wrongs: Being Human in the Age of AI’.