Data is the oil of the next century

Controlling our own future is only possible if we control our information, and the access we allow the technology giants to have. That is why I keep saying data is the oil of the next century.

The risk isn't abstract. We hand over personal data constantly and accept every cookie policy without thinking. That uncritical acceptance is exactly how sensitive information ends up somewhere it shouldn't.

So we need a far broader debate, now, and at the conferences still to come, about what can actually be done with our personal data, and with the data being generated every day by companies and by people.

The dangers are already concrete: digital fraud, fake accounts, artificial intelligence used to imitate voices and deceive people. Society still isn't very aware of how dangerous the internet can be when it isn't used well.

And there is still resistance to women in this field. Mostly, men think we don't deserve to be in that room, not all of them, but there's always one. Explaining that we're there on merit, and that it's worth it, is an interesting process every single time.