An FT Business Book of the Month (April 2021)
The book that will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about data, privacy and the future of Big Tech.
“Good Data brings a breath of fresh air, an invigorating blast of common sense, to the debate about our digital world. In place of scare stories about surveillance and exploitation, the book provides new insights from an expert, and pragmatic suggestions about how we can make data work for us as a shared resource. This is an essential read for anybody interested in shaping a positive digital future“
Diane Coyle, Professor of Public Policy, University of Cambridge
Good Data: An Optimist’s Guide to Our Digital Future by Sam Gilbert is out now: Saxo | Bookshop.org | Waterstones | Audiobook
About Sam
Sam Gilbert is an affiliated researcher at the Bennett School of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, where he writes about the economic and political implications of digital technologies.
In addition, he advises start-ups on strategy and digital marketing, and sits on the board of the Danish non-profit Data for Good Foundation.
Previously, he was employee number one and chief marketing officer at Bought By Many (now ManyPets), the fintech “unicorn” named as one of Wired’s hottest start-ups in Europe and ranked in the Sunday Times TechTrack100 list of the UK’s fastest growing companies. Earlier in his career he was head of strategy and development at the data company Experian and head of consumer finance at Santander.
He lives in Copenhagen.
Praise for Good Data
“Good Data weaves some thorny issues into a personal story that is positive, interesting, easy to read and provides valuable insight”
Peter Turner, Chief Commercial Officer, Avast PLC
“There is increasing concern about how the big tech companies use – and abuse – our data. In this highly readable book, Sam Gilbert sets out how this data can be used for good, and describes how to think about controlling big tech while still achieving the positive benefits from it”
Julian Huppert, Director, The Intellectual Forum
“I am learning a lot from this thoughtful book about how big data could make life better”
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, Author of Everybody Lies: What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are
“Just read the bit about Palantir. I think you’ve managed to say something both sane and interesting”
Rowland Manthorpe, Technology Correspondent, Sky News
“Meta Data”
The most commonly-asked questions about data, as revealed by…Google search data.
- Facebook Data
- What data does Facebook have on me?
- Can Facebook read my messages?
- Can Facebook read WhatsApp?
- What data does WhatsApp collect?
- What data does Instagram collect?
- Can Facebook use my photos?
- Can Facebook hear you?
- What Facebook does with your data
- What Facebook owns
- Why Facebook is bad
- Data Protection and GDPR
- What is GDPR?
- What does GDPR stand for?
- What data is protected by GDPR?
- What are the 7 principles of GDPR?
- When did GDPR come into force?
- Are data processors liable for GDPR fines?
- What is a data subject?
- What is a data breach?
- Are data breaches on the rise?
- Do I need a checkbox on contact forms under GDPR?
- Are Google Forms GDPR compliant?
- Google Data
- What data does Google Analytics collect?
- Are Google Photos safe?
- Are Google Docs secure?
- Why Google is bad
- Amazon Data
- Are Alexa devices always listening?
- Can Alexa spy on you?
- Is Amazon Echo safe?
- Why Alexa is bad
- Are Amazon lockers safe?
- Why doesn’t Amazon pay tax?
- How Amazon makes money
- Apple Data
- Can the Apple Watch track sleep?
- Why Apple phones are bad
- Why Apple is a bad company
- Big Data and Data Science
- What is big data?
- What is data science?
- What makes a good data scientist?
- What is data analysis?
- What does a data analyst do?
- What is data mining?
- Data Rights
- What is data ethics?
- Are data rights human rights?
- What data collection methods are there?
- How is data collected?
- How to find our what data a company has on you
- How long can a company keep your data?
- Deleting Data
- Can Facebook messages be deleted?
- How to delete all your Tinder data
- When data is deleted, where does it go?
More of Sam’s Thinking
The power and legitimacy of Big Tech companies
Should the government repeal the Online Safety Act?, Bennett School of Public Policy, September 2025
Good surveillance? Tech funded with targeted ads isn’t all peril for the global south, Intermedia, December 2024
Social Media and Mass Empowerment: Towards a Theory of Digital Legitimacy (with Dr. Amanda Greene), Journal of Moral Philosophy, September 2024 [email me if you don’t have access to this journal]
Twenty years of Facebook: how has it shaped economies around the world?, Economics Observatory, February 2024
The Online Safety Bill, Bennett Institute policy brief with Professor Ross Anderson, September 2022
Unicorn Dreams: How to build a billion-dollar company – and why you might not want to, August 2022
Good data; bad data?, talk at the Royal Statistical Society, March 2022
The Age of Profilicity and Identity Politics, Future of You Podcast (with Tracey Follows and Hans-Georg Moeller), March 2022
An Optimist’s Guide to Our Digital Future, interview with Book Talk Today, February 2022
Is a coordinated international approach the way to regulate Big Tech?, (by Cristina Lago), TechMonitor, September 2021
The UK is renegotiating its relationship with Big Tech, (by Matthew Gooding), TechMonitor , July 2021
Re-thinking how we regulate big tech, panel discussion with Professor Diane Coyle, Dr Amanda Greene, Jamie Susskind, & Dr Tanya Filer (Chair), Bennett Institute for Public Policy, May 2021
Apple, App Tracking Transparency, and the Hidden Costs of More Privacy, talk at University of Cambridge Computer Lab, May 2021
Interview with data expert Sam Gilbert, (with Lisa Brennan), Suffolk Libraries, May 2021
Digital Legitimacy Scorecard, April 2021
Surveillance capitalism – an idea that won’t stand up? (Podcast interview with Vicki Shotbolt & Geraldine Bedell), Parent Zone, March 2021
Elon Musk ‘fills the gap left behind by Donald Trump’ as Twitter’s most controversial public figure, expert claims (by Joe Pinkstone), Mail Online, March 2021
Facebook, Australia’s Media Bargaining Law, and Political Moralizing, Bennett Institute for Public Policy, March 2021
Can rentier capitalism explain Big Tech?, Bennett Institute for Public Policy, February 2021
Data Ethics and Multinational Technology Companies (with Professor Peter Williamson), UK-China Global Issues Dialogue Centre, July 2020
Chinese news sites have huge Facebook followings. Why?, Medium, May 2019
Google data in social science research and public policy
Bits Don’t Lie, MAIZE, July 2024
Subjective well-being during the 2020–21 global coronavirus pandemic: Evidence from high frequency time series data (with Dr Roberto Foa and Dr Mark Fabian), PLoS One, February 2022
Clowning around…good data, Clowning Around (podcast interview with Emma Stroud), September 2021
What’s the future of our data?, The Evolving Leader (podcast interview with Jean Gomes & Scott Allender), July 2021
Fixing the broken patient search experience, (by Andrew Stone), Reuters, May 2021
Dream search and the collective unconscious, Search Listening, April 2021
Well-being increased during the first UK lockdown – but not for everyone, LSE British Politics and Policy, December 2020
We are horribly sexist to female politicians. Google data proves it (by Rowland Manthorpe), Wired, August 2020
Search Listening: How not-for-profits should be using search data to truly understand the public (video with Sophie Coley & Hannah Harris), AnswerThePublic, August 2020
Covid-19 and Subjective Well-Being (with Dr Roberto Foa & Dr Mark Fabian), Bennett Institute for Public Policy, July 2020
Search results are helping tackle COVID-19 – now we should use them to develop policies (by Chris Stokel-Walker), Apolitical, July 2020
Could search engines predict the spread of coronavirus?, BBC News, June 2020
How can Google search help with the Covid-19 response?, Bennett Institute for Public Policy, April 2020
Using Google data for policy research, Bennett Institute for Public Policy, December 2019
Tapping into the hidden power of big search data, SAGE Ocean, June 2019
Public-purpose tech
The Case for a Danish National Data Co-operative, Impact Insider, March 2025 [på dansk]
The ethics of data-driven marketing, Euler, December 2022
An optimist’s view: What makes data good?, Rights Track Podcast, March 2022
Data for good, Chartered Institute of Housing, February 2022
Is public-purpose technology the new fintech?, The New PPT / StateUp, October 2021
A good talk about good data – an interview about data ethics, Open Innovations, September 2021
Ethics & Society: What is Good Data?, panel discussion with Jeni Tennison, Susannah Storey, & Ray Eitel-Porter (Chair) CogX, June 2021
Re-thinking Apple’s commitment to privacy, Bennett Institute for Public Policy, May 2021
Reclame is een prima businessmodel voor internet (Interview with Robert Heeg), Candid, May 2021 (in Dutch)
Apple’s new ad-Tracking system (Live TV interview), BBC News: World Business Report, April 2021
Tech Tent: The end of ad tracking? (by Rory Cellan-Jones), BBC News, April 2021
Should Governments be Data Optimists?, StateUp, March 2021
How political technologists and social science researchers can work together to renew democracy (discussion paper), June 2020
In a pandemic, what use is Google?, SAGE Ocean, June 2020
Thinking and Doing Institutions (discussion paper on a new model for think tanks), April 2020
Infodemiology in The Coronavirus Tech Handbook, April 2020
FinTech and InsurTech
Open finances: to be or not to be afraid?, (podcast with Naima Yasin & Esben Toftdahl Nielsen), Fintech Matters / Copenhagen Fintech, June 2021
ClearScore and first-mover disadvantage, LinkedIn, March 2018
7 Practical Ideas for Blockchain Insurance Products, Bought By Many, June 2017
Women in Power, LinkedIn, March 2017
Admiral and anti-social data, Oxbow Partners, November 2016
Why UK FinTech needs its hand bitten, Bought By Many, April 2016
The Hype Cycle of Insurance Disruption, Insurance Thought Leadership, February 2016
web3
Working in the metaverse: what virtual office life could look like, chapter in The Conversation On Work (ed. Ian O. Williamson, August 2024
Children, Competition, and the Metaverse, Bennett Institute for Public Policy, August 2022
The Political Economy of the Metaverse, l’Institut français des relations internationales, June 2022
Working in the metaverse: what virtual office life could look like, The Conversation, May 2022
What is web3 and what might it mean for the UK economy?, Economics Observatory, April 2022
Crypto, web3, and the metaverse, Bennett Institute for Public Policy, March 2022
Policymakers, web3, and the metaverse, Bennett Institute for Public Policy, March 2022
Generative AI
Using Generative AI in Scientific Literature Review, with Dr Steven Wooding, Villum Fonden, July 2025
Is ChatGPT bad for the environment?, Bennett School of Public Policy, May 2025
Generative AI in Grant Applications, with Dr Steven Wooding, Villum Fonden, March 2025
Review of Power And Progress by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, Economic Record, March 2024
Policy Brief: Generative AI, with Dr Ann Kristin Glenster, ai@cam / Bennett Institute for Public Policy / Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, October 2023
Generative AI: An Executive Guide, with Ankur Shah, ExecutiveGuide.ai, October 2023
Fake political images: entry for the OpenAI Preparedness Challenge, October 2023
What might be the economic impact of AI tools like ChatGPT?, Economics Observatory, June 2023
Are Emerging Technologies More Hype Than Reality?, Crossing Channels Podcast, April 2023
What does Generative AI mean for public policy?, Bennett Institute (slides), March 2023
Beyond online safety: AI, web3, and the Metaverse, Cambridge Festival (panel), March 2023
Please note: as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Sam Gilbert // Good Data 