Ep. 118: StJohn Deakins - It's Time for CitizenMe

Today we continue exploring data, ethics, technology, and risk. There is a continuation of some of the ideas in Ep. 117, and many alternative viewpoints provided as well.

My guest is StJohn Deakins. StJohn is the Founder and CEO of CitizenMe, a company that enables organisations to solve problems and build closer relationships with the public through ethical user data and research tools. His vision is to create a service for everyone that allows us to unlock the value of our personal data, for our own ends. This will allow us to take control of our digital identities and assert our rights. And, as you’ll hear our data is worth more than we may think.

StJohn is quite a visionary and has been ahead of numerous trends in the tech space for some time. We cover a lot of very interesting ground in this episode:

The origins of CitizenMe, and how its vision is to make the internet work as originally planned;
The organic data that is all around us as individuals;
How StJohn and CitizenMe help people interct with their data;
The Cambridge Analytica scandal;
Analog versus digital memories;
Dark patterns;
Problems with our education system;
Ethics and governance of data;
Adtech;
Much more!

Show notes:

StJohn’s personal site

Charlie Brooker on tech’s next Black Mirror moment

Dark patterns

Ad Tech

Radical Everyone

Home Deus by Yuval Noah Harari

Contact, 1997 film