In our increasingly data-driven world, data is becoming one of the most valuable goods. But how do you get legitimate ownership on data? Is just every kind of data that you collect, yours? Or does information on the preferences and behavior of a person belong to exactly this person and no one else?
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union (EU) reflect a view on personal data as owned by the respective person by default with the option for the person to allow organizations to store their data (EU, 2018). The GDPR is the reason we get these pop ups every time we open a new website. And since the companies behind the websites of course still want our data, allowing the processing and storage of data is usually easier than rejecting it. The button for allowing might be bigger and colored or rejecting might require several clicks. Unfortunately, me and a lot of other people are lazy and care more about accessing the respective website fast, instead of securing my data ownership long-term.
And why would I even care? Does it hurt me, if companies store my data? I do not have anything to hide, right?
Even if we do not care personally about private companies collecting information about us, it might matter in the big picture. DECODE, a project by the EU, argues that the current system, in which a few big companies are in charge of most of the personal data, is very inefficient and creates inequalities. The data could be very useful for all of society, but right now, it is inaccessible. This is not only true for data gathered through websites and mobile apps, but also through the Internet of Things and sensor networks. DECODE is an experimental project aiming to find ways to enable citizens to gain full control on their own data and to share it for public benefit instead of private companies’ profit. (DECODE, no date)
At this point, there is no general recommended course of action. We are still in the process of figuring out how to handle the resource data and we should debate and try out different approaches, like the EU does with DECODE right now.
Sources:
EU (2018), General Data Protection Regulation
DECODE (no date), What is DECODE? [online] accessible under: https://decodeproject.eu/what-decode
Picture: https://decodeproject.eu
I just want to add an insight on why it might hurt an individual, if these companies acquired a lot of data about. Some companies like Facebook have extremely advanced AI’s at their disposal, which exploit simple human psychology in combination with a persons character or profile that they created about you. Not only will they show you content that fits your ideologies and interests to gain attraction, they will also use behavioural psychology to manipulate your actions. These AI’s are getting increasingly smarter and who knows to what extent these companies can manipulate our actions through the content their AI chooses to show us. This means that knowing what kind of the data these companies have acquired from us, can also help us in detecting how their trying to influence our behaviour.
Hi Marleen,
With a vastly digitising world, often considered to be at an exponential rate, data continues to be collected. The problem with this is that even if companies or governments have no ill intentions for the usage of it, it is hard to regulate it. Technological advancements are essentially inevitable and it is about how we manage it, that becomes crucial. I think GDPR is incredibly important and, for example, there is no single data privacy law in the US.
Hi Marleen,
Thanks for the interesting read, especially with regards to the DECODE project, which I had not heard anything about. I agree with the fact that currently the barrier to “protecting” your data while browsing online is quite high, as having to navigate through a variety of pop-up menu’s for every website you visit is a pain. It would be interesting to see how these practices will change in the near future, seeing that people are becoming more aware of the importance of protecting their personal data. Personally, I am hoping that we will soon have a browser-wide option, allowing users to automatically only allow the essential data to be collected. Until then, I guess we will have to either live with our data being collected, or go through the hassle of pop-ups for every page we visit.