Surveilling Our Own Data
Fears over data collection have generally centered around losing control of our data. What becomes of our reconstituted digital selves when they are amassed and peered over by marketers, governments, or ill-willing third (or, second) parties? An unending circular game of cat and mouse plays out with those desiring of the data inventing new methods to circumvent the circumventions of collection techniques.
Yet, on a smaller scale, should we even trust ourselves to surveil our own data? In a speculative critical design video from Superflux Lab, an older man is pestered by his family to use his data tracking devices (cane, fork, and bed frame) so they can monitor his health. While certainly their intentions are ‘good,’ the objects become a stand-in for their presence in his life. They do not seem to understand his actual needs, wants, or actual life patterns — as he eventually tricks the devices into providing false positive data. It raises various questions about whether we want to place data in between relationships. Will that enhance our understanding of each other? Or will it only serve to abstract what were once nuanced connections? (But perhaps there was never a nuanced connection there to begin with and this is only to relieve the guilt of knowing that).
Maybe the creator of the data alone is the only one that ought to have ownership and access to their data. The rise of bio-tracking devices is fueled by the popular opinion that they are an excellent method to encourage fitness, healthy eating, and good habits. But as a recent New York Times article with the provocative title “How Salad Can Make Us Fat” acknowledges, positive activities in one realm can make us more inclined toward “hedonic activities” in another. The author notes, “We have a deep-seated urge to remain, as a ‘Seinfeld’ episode once put it, ‘Even Steven.’” If tracking our steps makes us feel good about 2,000 step successes, perhaps we’ll be more inclined to indulged in those extra helpings of Ben and Jerry’s.
While our greatest fears surround what someone else does with our data, it is worth considering—what are we doing with our data? As Rita Raley points out in Dataveillance and Countervailance, that the data is useful to us is a common excuse for allowing to be collected. She find that in forums discussing cookie deletion the tone is consistent:
In fact, some of [the cookies] are functionally necessary and the end result is that one encounters advertisements that may be of interest. In order to receive customized rather than generalized services, one of course has to provide information to corporations and institutions so that they might better support our preferences, profiles, and favorites.
Perhaps it is worth taking a closer look to determine what (data surveilled by us or others) is truly beneficial.
