Big surprise… Yes! They can. They already made millions of people doing this. But what is really happening here?
When I was watching a video of Roger McNamee (former mentor of Mark Zuckerberg) and Edward Roussel (Dow Jones Chief Innovation Officer) at the Digital Marketing Exposition and Conference they pointed out that Pokemon Go was basically the first indirect test of Google trying to manipulate and steer human behavior in an utterly new way. People that were/are using the Pokemon Go app were indeed knocking on doors of strangers, since they really badly wanted that very special Pokemon that was located in the garden of their neighbors. Next to that, the makers of this app could even make you go into a school or a Starbucks etc. You see the point.
Every hour, big companies receive tonnes of data about us and our behavior. But still I hear people say: “I don’t care what companies do with my data”, and that made me think. It is of course really convenient to have apps in your life that support you in the best way possible, like Google maps that knows exactly where your home and work address is and therefore this app can help you to quickly navigate to those places. Or even one step further, Google tracks your location and sees exactly where you are at any time, but for you as a user it’s also great to see where you have been.. This information is not new, but it keeps me thinking of how much data big established companies actually receive, for example, Walmart collects more than 2.5 petabytes of data every hour from its customer transactions (McAfee et al, 2012), and probably that has more than doubled as of today.
But what actually got my attention was the fact that big established firms can go one step further: they can make you move in a physical way! This could really be a very effective means for digital marketing right? So by gamifying processes (like the Pokemon Go app) you can actually manipulate human behavior. But if that’s possible, what will happen in the long run?
There are roughly four companies in the world that control most of our data, but just imagine what they can do with all of that information. For example, the Oxfort Internet Institute (2019) found out that manipulation on social media has got worse – “rising numbers of governments and political parties making cynical use of social media algorithms, automation and big data to manipulate public opinion at scale.” Striking facts, and we also haven’t forgotten the Cambridge Analytica scandal in recent history. Hub firms are big enough, they don’t need others (Iansiti & Lakhani, 2017), they can make you do a lot in the future… like moving you to a special location with an exclusive ceremony to get your iPhone one day earlier than the official release date as part of you being loyal to brand. Just a random idea, but there are endless possibilities.
I think we should be way more careful in how we share our data across platforms, since it can be of real monetary value for such companies, confirmed by the fact that companies pay a lot for valuable data. And as Roger McNamee (video) pointed out, “we shouldn’t view data as an asset and we shouldn’t be able to buy and sell your own data, it is part of your bodily organ.”
What do you think about these risks of big firms going steps further in terms of what they do with your data and what should we do to get our customer power back?
If you have some spare time, here is the video:
References:
McAfee, A., Brynjolfsson, E., Davenport, T. H., Patil, D. J., & Barton, D. (2012). Big data: the management revolution. Harvard business review, 90(10), 60-68.
Iansiti, M., & Lakhani, K. R. 2018. Managing our hub economy. Harvard Business Review, 96(1), 17-17.
TechCrunch. (2019). Voter manipulation on social media now a global problem, report finds – TechCrunch. [online] Available at: https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/26/voter-manipulation-on-social-media-now-a-global-problem-report-finds/ [Accessed 22 Sep. 2019].
YouTube. (2019). Big tech under observation – after years of watching us, is now being watched | 2019. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aM55qkIt14 [Accessed 14 Sep. 2019].
Dear Jeroen,
very interesting read. Thanks for bringing this topic up. I have spend a lot of time thinking about this and trying to protect my own data, but more recently I lost focus. I can only explain it by the fact that I believed in not being able to make an impact any more, since the big four of the internet are having such a big impact. And I guess that’s what they want. Their power is immense nowadays. I see the positive sides as well, for sure. Data resulted in important improvements for all of us. But convenience on tailored ads for example should scare us indeed. I found the presented website in our research methods course, datacoup.com, an interesting perspective. Datacoup is the first service allowing you to collect all your data and sell it anonymised for real cash. “If you connect data, you’ll earn”. So, there are ways to increase our customer power.
Hi Maren, thank you for sharing your thoughts! I do agree with you that I’m also close to loose focus on what I can protect and what not. Sometimes you cannot even use an app before agreeing to the terms and conditions of company X, and this way they are also able to access your photos on your device for example while you actually don’t even want them to do that. But still, I also agree to the terms and conditions since I want to use the app, so this is always part of the struggle and results in a tradeoff between giving in or not using a service. A hard choice, and maybe even unethical?
The last point you raised about Datacoup is very interesting indeed, a complete shift in business model as well, and again, a platform. Taking back the power to the customer, but still, at that moment you are selling your own data to the big companies, they will still have your data while you have a bit of money in exchange. Do you think that this would really bring back the customer power? One the one hand, I think that when you are combining all you data on the platform of Datacoup is actually helping the companies that want this data and these companies can actually afford it to pay a premium for all different sorts of data, and they will probably do so. On the other hand, as I mentioned before, companies can still force you in way that you have to decide between using an app or not. And maybe, when you are selling your own data for money, people could see this as hypocritical and still helping these sorts of companies in the same way? I’m curious what your opinion is on this.
Dear Jeroen, I get your point. It is still the same data. Basically, the difference is you are getting money for it and make a conscious decision to share it. I agree with your critical view, on the other hand it is a move into the right direction I would say. The possibility to do so shows great potential to me. Still I think that the power is so immense already that boundaries are blurry as you say as well …
Hi Jeroen,
before reading your blog post, I haven’t thought about taking a look on such apps from that perspective! Even though I have never downloaded the above mentioned app, it made me think about other apps or websites which, retrospectively, could have triggered my behaviour without having realised it on first side. Your chosen app, therefore, is a great example to illustrate the companies’ motivation and intention for launching such applications.
As you already state in your blog post, the crucial question should be about how far we, the society, should tolerate such motivations and what mechanisms in this business could prevent us from sharing personal data inadvertently.
In my opinion, the question responding to this should be “Why do we get fooled that easily, although we have access to so many information sources to inform ourselves about such threats?”. Does our inner desire for childhood memories predominate our fear of letting big companies access our private data? Does our enthusiasm for catching the Pidgey of level 5 around the corner cut out our awareness about these companies tracking our movements and our behaviour? I think, there has to be a stronger movement towards sharing information about the underlying intention of such apps and companies. There need to be more relevant information sources which depict also the consequences of downloading and using such apps to give people a better understanding of what it means to click on the “Download Now” button.
Hi Tobias,
Thanks you for sharing your thoughts! I do agree with you that it is quite frightening to see how easy people could be manipulated, since it simply is. Next to that, I’m actually quite curious what other apps of companies did you find that are more or less working with the same principal? Another one that just came up in my mind, and maybe too easy, is the discount coupon of Mc Donald’s for example. They give out coupons for ‘free’ burgers or a substantial discount on several products via their app and it could move people to actually visit their stores and spend money, since you also want some fries next to your burger, and maybe also a coke since you are thirsty. Mc Donald’s happy, it worked… Nowadays, this old-fashioned way of moving people is still pretty accurate, even in more sophisticated ways like Pokemon Go.
Therefore, I agree with you that there need to be more relevant information sources which depict the consequences of downloading and using such apps, and people should get a better understanding of what it really does behind the scenes. Though, I think it will be really hard to create such an awareness within the general public, since companies won’t simply like this that much I suppose.