Sam Smith is a technologist working in policy and privacy based in Cambridge. Current interests include the long term sustainability of institutions in a world of technological change - currently AI and genomics, but also whatever comes after AI and genomics - as well as the appropriate design of systems to ensure public trust in an increasingly digital world.

Sam leads on policy at medConfidential - an independent non-partisan organisation which works towards confidentiality and consent in health and social care, seeking to ensure that every flow of data into, across and out of the NHS and care system is consensual, safe, and transparent. medConfidential works to raise awareness and to demonstrate the world as it is, as well as the world as it should be.

He previously worked for Privacy International on UK policy and the universal export of cyber-weapons. Sam’s freelance work has included a range of human rights technology projects, such as building search engines to help rights activists track violence in Chechnya; working with large datasets documenting political violence in Zimbabwe; and making research about modern slavery understandable to a lay audience. He has also worked with the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies.

Sam currently sits on the National Information Board of the Department of Health, the Privacy and Commercial Advisory Group of the Cabinet Office, and previously sat on the care.data advisory group of NHS England, as well as the Office of National Statistics’ Beyond 2011 (Census) Privacy Advisory Group. Previously, Sam was a research fellow at the University of Manchester, and now lives in Cambridge looking for interesting projects.