Derek Fielding Memorial Lecture: Samantha Floreani

Our Speaker

Samantha Floreani

Samantha Floreani works at the intersection of human rights, technology, and feminism. They are currently the Program Lead at Digital Rights Watch where they advocate for human rights as realised in the digital age. Their areas of interest include the impact of pervasive surveillance, privacy as a collective good, and how content moderation and censorship practices of digital platforms disproportionately harm some groups over others.

With several years of experience working in privacy in both public and private sectors as well as civil society, Samantha believes that an expansive and interdisciplinary approach to privacy is vital. They have previously worked as a Privacy and Technology Specialist with Salinger Privacy, and as a Senior Policy Analyst at the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner. Samantha is also a former Board Member for the Australian Privacy Foundation.

Samantha’s interest in privacy and technology prompted her to pursue postgraduate studies in data science, where they developed a keen interest in fairness in machine learning. While studying, Samantha experienced first-hand the lack of gender representation in technical spaces. They joined Code Like a Girl as a volunteer, eager to support people from underrepresented groups navigating the tech industry. Samantha later became Code Like a Girl’s Program Director where she coordinated the program of community events, managed ongoing partnerships with the tech industry, and delivered coding workshops to adults and children.

Samantha is an experienced public speaker and has delivered talks for local, national, and international audiences across topics ranging from digital privacy, ethics in technology, gender socialisation and equality, and gender representation in the tech industry. They have also appeared on television and radio programs including the ABC, The Project, 9 News, SBS, 3CR, 3RRR, and 2SER. Their writing has been published in The Guardian, Overland, Kill Your Darlings, Pedestrian, Junkee and the Sydney Morning Herald, among others.