We are delighted to present Cory Doctorow, a pioneering international commentator on internet and digital technology, for a lunchtime PrivacyLive forum in Wellington at 1pm, Tuesday 13 March.

Cory Doctorow is a Canadian technology, copyright and privacy thinker, blogger, journalist, activist and science fiction writer. He is co-editor of Boing Boing and the originator of Doctorow's Law: "Anytime someone puts a lock on something you own, against your wishes, and doesn't give you the key, they're not doing it for your benefit."

Cory will discuss the topic 'Machine Learning, Big Data and Being Less Wrong'. He will explain the seemingly limitless possibilities for machine learning and how it will require skilled practitioners and careful research to separate approaches that seem promising from those that deliver.

He argues that in order to get these things right, we must preserve the right of inquiry, discussion and experiment - the right to investigate how systems work, to share conclusions, and to implement them without fear of reprisal.

He says if you're concerned about IoT surveillance from devices woven into our lives in the most sensitive and intrusive ways, you must allow firms and individual to offer patches that override the manufacturers' choices about how these work, otherwise, we're entirely beholden on firms to check their own worst impulses.

Cory's visit to New Zealand is enabled and supported by Internet NZ and the New Zealand Festival Writers and Readers.

OPC PrivacyLive Forums:

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) presents free, occasional, lunchtime PrivacyLive forums. The PrivacyLive forums are intended for anyone with an interest in privacy-related and data protection issues.