Forbes – Kalev Leetaru: “Computer science curriculums have long emphasized the power of data, encouraging its harvesting and hoarding, pioneering new ways of mining and manipulating users through it, reinforcing it as the path to riches in the modern economy and proselytizing the idea of data being able to solve all of society’s ills. In contrast, library and information science curriculums have historically emphasized privacy, civil liberties and community impact, blending discussion of public data management with private data minimization. Tomorrow’s future technology leaders could learn much from their library-minded colleagues. As a young computer science student at what was then the #4-ranked computer science program in the nation (today #5), my coursework was filled with all manner of practice and theory on how to acquire, manage and mine the world’s largest datasets. The focus was on capability, of what “could” be done with data, rather than what “should” be done with data. The idea that a technical achievement should be avoided because it might harm society was never even whispered. The idea that data should be minimized to protect privacy was not even a concept. Secure systems design emphasized how to safeguard data from unauthorized access, but never the concept of how to safeguard the users whose data that was from harm. Never once was the concept of an Institutional Review Board or the concept of assessing the societal harm of research ever presented, even while security and architectural review boards were a topic of regular discussion…”