Jenifer Winter

Jenifer Winter


Professor, Graduate Chair
School of Communications

I am a Professor and Graduate Chair of the School of Communications and co-Director of the Pacific ICTD Collaborative. I received the AB from Occidental College and the MLIS and PhD from the University of Hawaii (Interdisciplinary Program in Communication and Information Sciences).

My research examines how increased instrumentation and tracking of natural and social processes (e.g., the Internet of Things) enable the construction of unique data profiles that may expose personal information that could be used by corporations or governments to disadvantage certain individuals or groups. I study how these developments may create unjust power differentials used by one group to diminish the opportunities of another, threaten to destroy anonymity when engaging in public affairs, and hinder public participation in democratic discourse. I am also interested in open data, in particular how it can be harnessed for the public good, while minimizing the risks of re-identification of personal data.

Keywords:

  • Data and discrimination
  • Digital inequalities big data
  • Internet of Things
  • Privacy and surveillance
  • Open data and civic engagement
  • Ubiquitous Computing
  • Communication policy

College of Social Sciences