Data and algorithms
The Data Society Research Seminar: Behind Data and Algorithms – Actors,logics and cultures behind digital technologies
took place last week on 16 June at Malmö University . There to speak at the event were Andrea Rosales Climent and
Sara Suárez-Gonzalo ,researchers from the IN3 . The seminar was organized by Malmö University’s University’s Data Society research programme.
Data and algorithms are intensively put in the public eye and have been on the research agenda for some time, prompting studies on biased systems regarding gender, ethnicity and now age. Researching the actors, logic and cultures behind data can lead academics to key insights into how algorithms embody rules, furthering discussions on power in today’s data society.
Over the last 20 years, digital technology and the internet have completely changed our mindsets. The internet was initially seen as a new world of amazing capabilities, but the digital revolution now threatens to undermine values such as personal freedom, democracy, trustworthy knowledge and even open competition. The future looks more like a dystopian universe than a utopian digital world. Words like monopoly, surveillance and disinformation describe the most pressing problems in this rather fearful internet setting. It sometimes feels like we live in a technological regime where our privacy is not respected anymore. In order to have any hope of recovering the promise of new technology, these problems need to be fixed.
The concept of surveillance capitalism has been used and popularized by sociologist Shoshana Zuboff . It refers to the commodification of personal data, i.e. the transformation of personal information into merchandise that is put up for sale to make a profit.
Data domination: the effects of mass surveillance
Sara Suárez-Gonzalo focused her talk on explaining how neo-republican theory can help us to better understand and deal with the effects of big data exploitation, mass surveillance and the way they shape social power relations.
The hegemonic framework for the discussion of the social and political effects of data-driven technologies is the liberal conception of the values of privacy and freedom (traditionally defined by liberalism as non-interference).
A new perspective
There is no control of privacy nowadays; this is seen in the need to accept cookies from regular websites to do any daily task on a computer. Surveillance strips people of control over their freedom to remain private, thus taking away their right to privacy. Overcoming data domination will mean defying the liberal hegemonic conception of privacy and accepting that leaving people alone to do as they please is not enough. We need to rethink a possible feminist and neo-republican perspective. For that, Suárez-Gonzalo proposed two conditions:
- Everyone must be provided with the material and immaterial resources necessary to keep the potential forms of domination in check. This means guaranteeing universal education on digital issues and bridging the digital divides affecting some parts of the population that are unable to keep up with technological development.
- Structural conditions, such as restrictions of policy, that give control to big tech companies must be avoided. This means preventing them from exercising their power on public institutions and imposing restrictions on the monopolistic dynamics of the economy that guide the technological business model.