The Dark Side of Social Media: Privacy, Manipulation and Terms of Use
Facebook has vowed it will not attempt to influence the outcome of an election. But as veteran Silicon Valley journalist Scott Allan Morrison shows us in his debut thriller Terms of Use, social media companies CAN manipulate voters and there are no laws to prevent them from doing so. Join Scott as he discusses his novel, Internet privacy and social media’s growing influence over our personal lives and our political system.

A journalist for almost twenty years, Morrison arrived in Silicon Valley as a technology correspondent for the Financial Times. He later wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and the Wall Street Journal. Over the course of a decade, Morrison covered most of the world’s top tech companies and chronicled many of Silicon Valley’s greatest stories, including the rise of Internet insecurity and the explosion of social media. More information about the book and the author can be found at www.scottallanmorrison.com.

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Speaker Bio

Scott Allan Morrison was a journalist for almost twenty years, covering politics, business, and technology in Mexico, Canada, and the United States. Morrison arrived in Silicon Valley as a reporter for the Financial Times during the darkest days of the dot-com crash. He later wrote about the Web 2.0 boom for Dow Jones Newswires and the Wall Street Journal. Over the course of a decade, Morrison covered most of the world’s top tech companies and chronicled many of Silicon Valley’s greatest stories, including the rise of Internet insecurity and the explosion of social media.

Morrison was born in Toronto and as a child dreamed of playing in the National Hockey League. His playing time was cut short at the tender age of ten when his family moved to Mexico, which at the time had one ice rink in the entire country. Morrison attended the University of Texas at El Paso, where he set his sights on computer science, not realizing that he’d be required to demonstrate, at the very least, a passable proficiency in calculus. He eventually graduated with a degree in journalism from Ryerson University in Canada. In between classes, Morrison waited tables, renovated homes, pulverized mineral samples and guarded inmates at a maximum-security jail. Then he spent four years teaching English and traveling in Southeast Asia. He speaks fluent Spanish and very rusty Mandarin. He lives in Northern California with his wife and his hockey sticks.