Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2024
Abstract
As we approach an era of potentially widespread consumer neurotechnology, scholars and organizations worldwide have started to raise concerns about the data privacy issues these devices will present. Notably absent in these discussions is empirical evidence about how the public perceives that same information. This article presents the results of a nationwide survey on public perceptions of brain data, to inform discussions of law and policy regarding brain data governance. The survey reveals that the public may perceive certain brain data as less sensitive than other ‘private’ information, like social security numbers, but more sensitive than some ‘public’ information, like media preferences. The findings also reveal that not all inferences about mental experiences may be perceived as equally sensitive, and perhaps not all data should be treated alike in ethical and policy discussions. An enhanced understanding of public perceptions of brain data could advance the development of ethical and legal norms concerning consumer neurotechnology.
Citation
Shenyang Huang, Umika Paul, Shikhar Gupta, Karan Desai, Melinda Guo, Jennifer Jung, Beatrice Capestany, William D. Krenzer, Dylan Stonecipher & Nita A. Farahany, U.S. Public Perceptions of the Sensitivity of Brain Data, 11 Journal of Law and the Biosciences 1-20 (2024)
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Library of Congress Subject Headings
Data protection, Neurotechnology, Public opinion
Included in
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsad032
Available at: https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/4381
