Data Privacy, Ethics & Governance

A graduate-level course examining data governance failures, privacy law, ethical frameworks, and the obligations of data professionals.

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Section 1: Foundations

Why This Course Exists

Week 1: The recurring gap between data governance and accountability
Week 2: Ethical frameworks as analytical tools: moving beyond compliance

Section 2: Privacy

Law, Engineering, and Its Limits

Week 3: The US privacy landscape and why it failed to protect citizens
Week 4: Privacy engineering: building protection into systems
Week 5: Consent, surveillance, and the weaponization of government data

Section 3: Governance

Frameworks, Quality, and Accountability

Week 6: Governance frameworks, accountability structures, and what happens when they are bypassed
Week 7: Data quality, trust, and the harm of bad data at scale
Week 8: Data security, access control, and the right to know

Section 4: Convergence

Weaponized Data, AI and Governance

Week 9: Palantir and the architecture of weaponized data
Week 10: Algorithmic fairness, bias, and data justice
Week 11: Generative AI: new governance problems, old ethical questions

Section 5: Agency

Accountability, Resistance, and the Path Forward

Week 12: Cloud governance, sovereignty, and who controls the infrastructure of power
Week 13: Professional ethics, resistance, and the data practitioner's obligations

Section 6: Capstone

Week 14: Capstone: integrated governance, privacy, and ethics program proposals