Sustainability and Data Usage & Privacy- Fordham Law School LLM Programme

This November I was delighted to speak to Fordham University School of Law’s International Law & Justice LLM students about data usage and privacy. This international group of students were engaged and committed with significant legal experience in their home countries.

I shared the power of data to improve decision making and track progress on sustainability commitments. We discussed how data collection can: monitor encroachment onto public lands; identify migration patterns; crowd source for eyewitness accounts of deforestation; map mobile phone usage to predict disease spread; monitor online search patterns to reveal the transition to circular economy or energy-efficient products; track mobile phone spending patterns as a proxy indicator of income levels, etc…

But, at the same time, the handling and processing of big data must uphold our individual privacy rights.

Interestingly, the recent proliferation of regulations requiring corporate sustainability disclosure is causing some businesses to raise concerns about their own right to maintain the confidentiality of their business strategies.

While the UN provides a general framework for harmonising some of these tensions, the increased use of AI and the international movement from voluntary to mandatory corporate sustainability disclosure suggest that the framework is in need of updating.