Do you think that new and emerging technologies, especially technologies related to surveillance, marketing, biotech and data collection, raise ethical concerns that should be subject to thorough public debate and discussion, both in academic and public forums, or do you think that being overly vocal about things like privacy rights and the ethics of biomedical and information technology just provides more ammunition the the far-right and conspiracy theorists, who might be interested in using concerns about technology and privacy to promote conspiracy theories and disinformation?

I ask, because the topic recently came up in a blackboard discussion for a 1 credit "Data Ethics" grad course I'm taking, and the general position amongst most of the class except for me and one other guy, was that these sorts of discussions should not occur in a public forum, because it could be exploited by conspiracy theorists, but it's okay if scientists discuss it privately amongst themselves, as long as they are really careful. But to me, it seems really ethically questionable that we should say that certain topics shouldn't even be discussed publicly. I understand some of the concerns about disinformation, media hysteria, partisanship, fear mongering etc, and I can understand why you might want to require a certain level of expertise and accreditation before you allow someone to publicly weigh in on a topic, but the idea that there shouldn't be ANY public discussion concerning questions like privacy rights, data collection, and surveillance seems really morally questionable to me. These are decision that are going to effect all of society, and really the technological and cultural future of the entire human race, so I think everyone should at least has the right to know about these issues and topics, and personally I also think they should be able to participate in discussions and have their voice heard, although that is a separate issue.