Dissertation Project

My dissertation is titled ‘Me, Myself and AI: Legal Consciousness and the Privacy Paradox in the Age of AI’, and is funded by FRQSC and approved by the McGill University Ethics Board.

Recruitment

Are you:

  1. Between 30-45 and use generative AI?

  2. Based in Montreal or Ottawa?

  3. A parent? (not mandatory)

  4. Able to be interviewed and respond in English?

If you would like to participate, please CLICK HERE to fill out the interest form.

My dissertation examines how generative AI is reshaping the ways people understand privacy, surveillance, consent, and their rights in digital spaces. I am particularly interested in the gap between what people say about protecting their personal data and how they actually engage with AI (privacy paradox).

My dissertation sets out to address this in three chapters:

  1. How adults understand and negotiate privacy when using generative AI

  2. How parents think about their children’s privacy and safety online, including their own practices of sharing information about their children

  3. How legal frameworks in Canada and the United Kingdom (UK) are responding to the challenges of protecting children in increasingly AI-mediated digital environments*

More broadly, my research sits at the intersection of sociology of law, criminology, surveillance studies, and technology, asking how people make sense of their legal rights and privacy in digital environments where data collection has become an ordinary part of everyday life.

Why the UK?*

The UK may seem like a random comparison, but, like Canada, it is a Commonwealth country and a member of the Five Eyes alliance. The UK, along with the USA, Australia, and New Zealand, is also frequently used in Canadian policy comparisons because of the shared legal, political, and institutional ties (they often look to one another when developing policy and tend to follow suit).

The UK, Australia, and New Zealand have taken rigorous approaches to protecting children online. For instance, did you know that Australia restricted children under 16 from having accounts on certain social media platforms? The UK is moving in a similar direction, with its own under-16 restrictions expected to come into effect in 2027.