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                CfP: Special issue of Internet Policy Review on 'feminist data protection'
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<br>Deadline for abstracts: 26 June 2020
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<br>More information and dates: 
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<br>Topic and relevance
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<br>The notion of data protection is now an integral part of legal and
<br>political discourse in Europe, as exemplified by the inclusion of a
<br>right to data protection in the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. Yet
<br>there have been relatively few engagements in thinking and framing data
<br>protection from an explicitly feminist perspective. This stands in stark
<br>contrast to the notion of privacy, with which data protection is often
<br>conflated and which has been the subject of extensive feminist critique
<br>and exploration, particularly insofar as it relates to the distinction
<br>between public and private spheres (e.g., Allen, 1988; MacKinnon, 1989;
<br>Bhattacharjee, 1997; DeCew, 2015; Weinberg, 2017). The starting point of
<br>this Special Issue is that the notion of data protection, once
<br>disentangled from privacy (González Fuster, 2014), warrants further
<br>examination from a perspective of intersectional (Crenshaw, 1991) feminism.
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<br>Data protection may be understood by considering the power imbalance
<br>with which individuals are confronted when data about them are processed
<br>(de Hingh, 2018): public and private entities can collect data without
<br>the individuals’ knowledge and it is hardly possible for individuals to
<br>control their data, once collected (Steinmüller et al., 1971). The
<br>processing of data thereby creates inherent risks for individuals –
<br>particularly so for those already marginalised or subject to
<br>discrimination (e.g., Noble, 2018; Chander, 2020; Gandy, 2010; Guzik,
<br>2009; de Vries, 2010) – and may further exacerbate the distribution of
<br>power in our societies. Thus, data protection, like feminism, aims at
<br>theorising and changing structural inequalities and power relations.
<br>Scope of the Special Issue
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<br>We wish to discuss these structural issues as well as potential answers
<br>through the lens of emancipatory approaches, such as feminist, queer,
<br>Marxist, post-colonial, critical race or disability studies
<br>perspectives, from all relevant disciplines. Contributions focussing on
<br>the intersection of different oppressive structures (i.e. not only
<br>gender but also racialisation, class, marginalisation of religious
<br>minorities, etc.) are particularly welcome.
<br>
<br>We invite submissions on the topic of feminist and other emancipatory
<br>approaches to data protection addressing the power imbalance faced by
<br>individuals, especially with regard to discrimination, marginalisation
<br>and oppression. We are interested in a wide variety of perspectives on
<br>the intersections between feminism and data protection, both in Europe
<br>and beyond, whether they are focused on mutual critique or on how either
<br>can benefit from the other and what their common or related aims could
<br>be (Peña & Varon, 2019). Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
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<br>- Data protection and privacy: How to analyse the relation between these
<br>“positive” notions in one discourse and the negative image of private
<br>spaces whose “legal vacuum” facilitates the exploitation of structural
<br>inequalities? How can these notions be brought into a dialogue, and
<br>which lessons can be learnt from history (Lake, 2016)?
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<br>- Data activism, data justice, digital rights, and feminism: Around
<br>which issues are European and worldwide feminist initiatives focusing on
<br>data processing practices emerging? Which are the tensions or
<br>intersections between such initiatives and data protection?
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<br>- Countering illegitimate data processing: How are women and
<br>marginalised groups targeted in the political economy of data gathering
<br>(McEwen, 2018)? How can they profit from the networking effects of
<br>social networks in order to organise while being protected from the
<br>fallout inherent in their capitalist business models, i.e. tracking and
<br>profiling?
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<br>- Surveillance: How is technology developed and used to oppress certain
<br>groups (Browne, 2015)? What are the dangers disproportionately affecting
<br>women, especially women of colour, in the context of surveillance
<br>(Gandy, 2010; Guzik, 2009; Lyon, 2003)? How could or should surveillance
<br>be avoided, subverted or countered?
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<br>- Artificial intelligence (AI) and ‘big data’: Should these practices be
<br>conceived of as a form of automated and inherent discrimination or as
<br>tools for visualising and countering existent discrimination? What
<br>biases are built into them, and what are their regulatory effects
<br>(Buolamwini & Gebru, 2018)? And how does data protection fit into
<br>proposed ways forward (i.e. ‘AI ethics’?)
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<br>- Online gender ascription: How is information about gender being
<br>collected and processed (Bivens, 2017)? Which parameters determine
<br>gender ascription in so-called Automated Gender Recognition (AGR)
<br>technologies? Is the gender identity of individuals (including
<br>non-binary persons) respected, and how could data protection law further
<br>this cause?
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<br>- Practices of categorisation and (mis)representation: How are gendered
<br>categories constructed, by which actors, and what is their impact,
<br>particularly for oppressed groups such as women or trans and non-binary
<br>people (Keyes, 2019)? How are biases and stereotypes built into data
<br>systems, and how should we respond to this? How can algorithms and
<br>protocols not only be designed but also used in line with principles of
<br>fairness and non-discrimination?
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<br>- Data processing and identity formation: What role do notions such as
<br>the (male) gaze, visibility, hiding, deception, outing, and
<br>performativity play in the context of data processing and reproduction
<br>of gender norms and gendered identities (Abu-Laban, 2015; González
<br>Fuster et al., 2015; Beauchamp, 2019)? Can and should data protection
<br>intervene in such processes?
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<br>- Data subjects and rights: Can we rethink notions of data protection
<br>law in ways which go beyond the neoliberal focus on the ostensibly
<br>gender-neutral, self-determining individual? How to effectively
<br>complement data subject rights (e.g., group rights, or other languages
<br>of resistance) without falling into identity traps?
<br>
<br>Special Issue Editors
<br>=====================
<br>Regina Ammicht Quinn, Andreas Baur, Felix Bieker, Gloria González
<br>Fuster, Marit Hansen, Jens T. Theilen
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<br>For any editorial inquiry, please email us at:
<br>feministdataprotection@izew.uni-tuebingen.de
<br>
<br>
<br>-- 
<br>Andreas Baur
<br>Research Associate
<br>  International Centre for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities (IZEW)
<br>  University of Tübingen · Wilhelmstr. 19 · 72074 Tübingen · Germany
<br>  Phone +49 7071 29-77988 · https://uni-tuebingen.de/izew
<br>PhD Candidate
<br>  Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR)
<br>  University of Amsterdam · https://aissr.uva.nl
<br>a.baur@uni-tuebingen.de · a.baur@uva.nl
<br>
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