Award-Winning Author, Designer, Technology Expert Joe Toscano Visits Belmont Hill

This morning Belmont Hill welcomed Joe Toscano to the Hamilton Chapel where he spoke to the boys about personal data and ethics in data. He provided an insightful overview of how quickly the sharing, buying, and selling of data has progressed, and the direction in which it is headed. 

Mr. Toscano was an Experience Design Consultant for Google, working across a variety of connected, revenue-based Google platforms and projects, giving him a bird’s-eye view of some of the systematic flaws both at Google and across the tech industry. He left Google in 2017 over concerns about the industry’s misuse of private data and how large tech companies may have contributed to the increased hostility in public discourse, taking a courageous personal stand long before the documentary film "The Social Dilemma" brought these issues to national attention. Mr. Toscano was featured in a 2019 Ted Talk entitled, “Want to Work for Google? You Already Do”; and is the author of the book "Automating Humanity." He is the current Founder and CEO of DataGrade.

Student leaders were then invited to the chapel basement to further the discussion. The smaller group made for an intimate question-and-answer style session. Students asked thoughtful questions about Mr. Toscano's background and projects that he worked on in high school as well as what he is looking forward to in the future. We are very grateful to Mr. Toscano for his generosity with his time.