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Data rights are human rights

“It is obscene to suppose that this harm can be reduced to the obvious fact that users receive no fee for the raw material they supply. That critique is a misdirection that would use a pricing mechanism to institutionalise and therefore legitimate the extraction of human behaviour for manufacturing and sale.” 

(excerpt from ‘The Age of Surveillance Capitalism’ by Shoshana Zuboff)

If we, as users, could capitalise on our data, would that change our attitudes to the use of our personal data? And to what extent?

Shoshana’s primary argument is that we are becoming blind and deaf to the way tech giants exploit our personal data for their own ends, undermining personal autonomy and building ‘new economic order’.

But what if we could take back control of that economic order?

If the control was in the hands of the user, and personal data could be secured via Blockchain and a fee accepted in exchange for your data, how does the script change?

Shoshana argues that to accept a fee for the data doesn’t mean the underlying exchange is not reprehensible. However, if the data belongs to you and is viewed as a commodity or an asset rather than something we have just accepted as no longer ours, it’s potentially a route out of this. After all, if Google and Facebook are making profits from your data, where’s your cut of the profit?

Reshaping the concept is the ‘Internet of Me’ revolution. The drive to put the power and profit back into the hands of the users. But they argue this can be difficult to achieve with such a non-tangible concept. Interestingly, comparing it to the obesity epidemic, they argue that so many are blissfully unaware of the extent to which data mining operations will go:

“Telling people they should take more care with their personal data has the ring of the public health campaign about it. It’s taken a very long time and an obesity epidemic to see any real traction on tackling sugary junk food. Our personal data health is a far less tangible concept.”

While the movement seems to have the user’s best interests at heart, free access to data is often used to inform urgent initiatives that can save lives, as the pandemic demonstrated. It is in cases like this that we are tethering the line between privacy and safety. 

Cultural preferences

But attitudes do differ across the globe. During the Covid pandemic, free access to big data allowed us to pinpoint areas of infection spread. However in Thailand, for example, citizens were dubious about using their version of the ‘Track and Trace’ app because of data privacy concerns, which ultimately impacted the effectiveness of the app. 

Conversely, in Singapore and South Korea, detailed personal data was published about infected individuals revealing where they worked and lived, and whether they had contact with others. This enabled the government to control infection spread, minimising death rates.

This proves further the need for a balance between openness and privacy, but also, it comes down to an organisation’s integrity and responsibility with handling data. 

At the Social Value Exchange, open data plays a huge role in innovation, both for CBOs and councils. It can inform user centred design that creates social impact and help us to identify the need for innovations in the community sector. Data is hugely valuable in the community sector for helping us understand the individuals we serve. And when organisations are responsible and ethical with data, great things can happen.

But there no doubt needs to be more power given back to the user. Will we see a world where personal data becomes an exchangeable commodity, comparable to labour or assets?

Which side are you on? Should we have true ownership and security over our personal data? How would you feel about the concept of accepting a fee in exchange for your data? 

One thing is for sure, we’ve reached a point where we’re freefalling into a data-centred society, and it’s becoming harder to escape these sophisticated algorithms. Data is ultimately ubiquitous. From every communication, transaction, browsing history, photographs and entertainment, to our grocery preferences and shopping habits – everything we do exists on a cyber level. And this gives tech giants the power to build a picture of our personality, our drivers and our habits and ultimately, predict our behaviour.

Where and when was the line crossed?

We think this might be helpful…

‘7 Things To Think About If You’re Doing Social Value And Want To Do It Right’

We’d love to hear from you.

Email: hello@socialvalueexchange.org

Telephone: 020 3488 6223

We’re on Twitter and LinkedIn too.

Here’s some nostalgia for you: the dial-up modem sound.

If your brain isn’t already replaying the distinct sound of that theatrical dial tone followed by incessant buzz, let me remind you.

Interestingly, the sound that preceded an (often unreliable) internet connection still exists in The Museum of Endangered Sounds, accompanied by Nokia ringtones, the sound of television static, and Tetris. Am I unlocking more memories?

Now, if that hasn’t teleported your mind back to 2002, your nostalgia might be prompted by references to popular platforms of the time including MySpace, MSN messenger and Limewire.

It was a time where internet in the home was a luxury, often reserved for the wealthy. Working from home was barely a concept, and the idea of renting someone else’s house or securing a lift with someone over the internet might’ve brought you out in a cold sweat.

Our relationship with the internet, how we used it, and connected to it, was a far cry from the internet we know today. 

Mobile users today account for 91% of online traffic, suggesting that on the whole, we are always online. 

Technology is helping us promote balance, opportunity and inclusion, allowing users to monetise their hobbies, assets and skills and connect businesses to customers safely and efficiently. 

An extended economy

The internet has been the foundation for the sharing economy to flourish, and a new world in which we can control when and where we work. What began as a network of users utilising the internet for the benefit of business has transformed into an extension of our economy, where the internet can be used to better our lives and the planet.

While this decentralisation of the internet is empowering individuals to sell their skills and create businesses online, the sharing economy brings a whole host of benefits to our communities. Flexible and efficient allocation of resources, monetising underutilised resources and reducing environmental impact, to name a few.

Sharing economy principles have inspired us at the Social Value Exchange. We connect local community projects with suitable government suppliers looking to create Social Value, creating community benefits for local people AND winning more work for those government suppliers.

By using this model, business is doing well by doing good. Platforms that were created based on sharing economy principles are connecting users in need with the services they need and creating a mutually beneficial outcome.

The Covid-19 pandemic showed everyone that our voluntary, community and social enterprise sector (VCSE) organisations play an absolutely vital role in the healthy functioning of our local communities. They often pick up the pieces, deal with the ‘hard to reach’ individuals and families or build bridges between government and under-represented communities.

Of course, the internet is at times used for illegitimate and nefarious exchanges, but when we assume the majority of users just want to do good, great things can happen. The pandemic showed us this. Why don’t we just carry on with the good stuff?

The benefits of a decentralised world

The internet is helping us to better our planet, our communities, and our relationships with each other. It’s also enabling us to extend our communities beyond the parameters of location. 

Perhaps one of the greatest things about the internet today is that it is promoting cultural diversity at a global scale. Working online, we can challenge the invisible, societal barriers associated with gender, class, ethnicity and location. The ability to facilitate exchanges between individuals from all over the world means individuals from different backgrounds, incomes and classes can access those resources. 

And Web 3.0 will remove the middle man, whether that’s the lawyers or whether it’s Facebook. As the internet becomes more decentralised and as smart contracts replace those middlemen, verification of ‘good’ behaviours will lead to greater value being shared amongst all those that want to invest in a better future. 

Would we have been able to achieve this without our ‘always-on’ internet connection? Perhaps. But it would have made things a lot harder. 

It’s exciting to think about what the next twenty years could bring. A decentralised internet could see the internet become a basic human right, enabling those from low income and less privileged communities to access the world of opportunities available?

The next few years will tell us. Maybe human nature – the need for control, the need to control – will get in the way (again). Or maybe the decentralised system will give power to ‘the people’. 

Google once said, ‘don’t be evil’. Those at the forefront of the decentralised internet say they can’t be. Let’s see.

We think this might be helpful…

‘7 Things To Think About If You’re Doing Social Value And Want To Do It Right’

We’d love to hear from you.

Email: hello@socialvalueexchange.org

Telephone: 020 3488 6223

We’re on Twitter and LinkedIn too.