“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?
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