Why Are We Not Talking About a Data Tax?
The Problem
We are being swindled by companies mining our personal information without a fair value exchange. Still, we continue to ask search engines to answer our most embarrassing questions or we follow friends and influencers on social media as we shed our information, an intimate trail of who we are, like a slug across the internet. With the release of documentaries like The Social Dilemma and The Great Hack, paired with lockdowns giving most Americans extra Netflix time, we likely have an idea of how data collection and processing operate. When large tech companies aren’t buying and selling our personal information for profit, they are using our data to create targeted advertisements to (very effectively) influence our buying behavior. So why is it that we don’t throw a tantrum that we’re receiving the short end of the stick when it comes to a deal made of exchanging our data for “free” internet access? Is the internet even “free” when news articles are hidden behind paywalls, or we pay for apps that also collect and sell our personal information, or we fall for that strategically placed ad when we’re a little depressed?
Why Nothing on The Internet is Actually Free
Free internet access is not free. When we use Google, information is being collected, profited off of us, the user, without us being compensated. Use DuckDuckGo instead? Cool, our information isn’t being collected…until we visit a website. Now, maybe it’s normal to think our compensation for the collection of our information is access to the website. However, after our data is collected, it can be and has been used to manipulate us into making certain decisions. Unseen to us, in a virtual marketplace, the data is bought and sold for the purpose of creating tailored advertisements aimed at nudging the user, you/me/us, to buy and consume more.
Aren’t You Overreacting? Or, How Much Data Do We Actually Produce?
We produce a massive amount of data at an unfathomable pace. According to this series of infographics on data collection, we each produce 1.7 MB of data every second. That’s 146,880 MB per day. Think of it like this: we collect 146,880 pieces of Legos in one day it would fill an entire bathtub in that same day. That’s a lot of data. Can you even list a fraction of the many details about yourself that are collected daily? It would take a very, very long time. This overwhelming impracticality is part of the problem we’re facing. Americans are busy people and we don’t have spare time to truly understand the depth of data collected on us. Add to this that as humans we’re generally not very good at understanding really big numbers. This means we’re in a vulnerable position because we can’t simply trust companies to have our best interests in mind, especially those mining us instead of precious metals or oil. Which should not be a surprise. I mean, really, when could a mining company ever be trusted?
How Companies Store and Retain Data Long Term
With all this data being collected, companies collect and usually hold indefinitely our data in some form of data storage or large data centers (which produce a disturbing amount of Co2 emissions according to this Forbes article). The majority of our data is used by companies to create profiles about us through the application of advertising technology (ad tech), while other companies bid on online ad space based on the mass quantities of information we shed daily. This generates billions of dollars for the data brokerage industry. These transactions, performed in what’s called real-time bidding (RTB), take mere milliseconds to complete.
So, What Can We Do About It?
A data tax is one possible solution to disincentivize companies from either collecting so much data in the first place or keeping said data indefinitely is a data tax. A 2017 article in The New York Times (one of the few articles to exist on the subject of data taxation) calculated the projected revenue growth of the 2018 data brokerage industry to be around $250 billion. Implementing a 0.8% tax would result in a $2 billion contribution to society. What could the revenue from this tax be used for? This tax could be implemented in such a way that would benefit society while also helping tech companies. Money collected from a data tax could be put to use in decreasing the digital divide by improving access to the internet for the approximately 27.6 million households without internet access. Additionally, part of this tax could go to providing grant money to schools for every student in America to have access to a laptop. Increasing digital literacy education, creating government jobs to combat the geopolitical threat of online mis & disinformation, as well as the improvement of national cyber security could all benefit from the revenue gathered from a data tax.
Why a Data Tax Could Be the Answer
There are plenty of reasons we can see for a data tax. The benefits of a data tax begin with incentivizing companies to hold less historical, or “dark data”, on individuals. This creates a more secure digital infrastructure that provides a space for greater cybersecurity by reducing the amount of data needing to be protected, which in turn benefits our national security in an age of cyberwarfare. Holding less data would also inherently reduce carbon emissions by both reducing the amount of energy needed to store data and freeing up space in existing data centers which means fewer centers need to be built. There’s even a chance that less data held would reduce the chances of exploitive advertising, whether intentional or unintentional, which could produce a host of social benefits.
Potential Objections or Downsides of a Data Tax
Apart from the fact that “tax” is oftentimes seen as a dirty word, there are still some mountains to climb and questions to answer before a Data Tax becomes a viable option. For example, we need to figure out at what point is the data tax incurred? Some have proposed that it function as a sales tax. This would mean the tax would be incurred at the point of the transaction. However, this does not address the collection or retention of data. Another sticky point is how are we to enforce a tax like this? Who will be responsible in the government for making sure companies aren’t exploiting loopholes? Finally, what about the ethical issues? Isn’t this just furthering the commodification of humans in a capitalist society? The short answer is yes. The longer answer is yes and our actions online are already being commodified through the collection, buying, and selling of our data. The only difference here is that the user actually benefits from the commodification that is already occurring.
Digital Food for Thought
How would a data tax be implemented and enforced within the boundaries of the United States? This tax is aimed at protecting every individual navigating a digital system while in American territories. We’re two graduate students writing this article who have been exploring this issue from a social/sustainable lens who hope that this piece will encourage a larger conversation about data regulation in American society. It affects all of us in the most personal of ways, so we should all be demanding the same digital protections as we would for our physical bodies, homes and families.
