Why the Transparency Revolution Should Change the Web

The word “transparency” has become commonplace in today’s world. One could say that our consumer environment is undergoing a transparency revolution. Transparency refers to a company’s willingness to expose their innermost workings and practices. This is a way for the public to keep them in check and reject companies that are implementing practices that are deemed unethical, specifically regarding social and environmental impacts. Companies across all industries are reanalyzing their practices because of this and new legislation has even been introduced to help keep companies in line. The tech industry is no exception.
In many industries it is clear what sort of information consumers are looking for- often it has to do with manufacturing processes, labor conditions and energy resources. But for companies who are not manufacturing any physical product, these aspects of transparency are irrelevant. So how are web and app companies still being affected by the transparency revolution? In our web-based modern world websites and apps have a major social impact on the users. How so? Through analytics and data.
Websites like Facebook, Twitter and Google unabashedly utilize data from their users for monetary gain. The biggest revenue source for companies like these is advertising. What makes advertising through these companies so appealing is that they know exactly which users to advertise to. Based on which accounts you follow on social media, what things you like or repost, what you search for on google, where you “check in”, what emails you send or receive, and what information you voluntarily share on your profile (i.e. where you live, your age, what your hobbies are, etc), these companies can take advantage of that and target you for various advertisements. Until recently (think Facebook privacy breach), the average user was essentially unaware of this, or at least unaware of the implications of this total access to their information.
Even now you may be thinking, “okay, so they know what products I might be interested in, so what’s the big deal?” Well, in a TED talk in 2014, Marie Wallace, an analytics strategist at IBM, summarized the risks that this sort of access poses to users, saying, “Let’s imagine a future where every piece of information you see is filtered by an algorithm. You only see what it wants you to see. Your favorite social networking site which you log into daily to check your news feed needs to grow advertising revenue of diet products. To do this, it primes the pump by feeding you articles tailored to reinforce your body image issues. Then when it observes a decrease in your self-confidence, it pushes targeted advertising at you to grab you while you’re at a low. I lie not. The social networking site gets its advertising revenue, its clients sell lots of diet products, and you end up feeling bad about yourself.”
This was the future imagined in 2014. Technology moves fast; we are already there! And selling diet products is not even the worst of the devious tactics or breach of privacy users may experience due to companies accessing user information.
Certainly, these companies need to make an income to stay afloat, but greater transparency would give users the opportunity to influence how their information is being used or at least help them make more informed decisions regarding what information they will share on various websites. Instead of being slowly manipulated over time, using psychological warfare, these companies could be upfront and keep their users informed about what data will be kept private and what may be accessed by them. Some companies, such as Facebook, have begun offering Subject Access Requests (SARs) to their users so they can see all the information that company has about them, but that does not necessarily mean they have a “right to be forgotten”, meaning to have the right to completely delete their account or information from it.
Luckily certain places such as the European Union are taking initiative to introduce legislation that will hold companies accountable for how they utilize their user’s data and information and setting standards for what is and is not acceptable (read more about the EU General Data Protection Regulations here ). Some states in the US have begun to follow suit, but it has yet to be widespread across the US. Users have the right to know what information is being accessed and how to control how and with whom it is being shared.
This is not an argument to stop the collection of data. The world is changing due to the advent of the web and social media. Rather this is an argument of demanding more transparency from these companies to allow users to make informed decisions and have better control over their own data. As it stands, the amount of information these companies can access is frightening; and often even if a website offers data privacy settings, they do not announce them prominently enough that the common user knows where or how to access it. Just as a consumer can choose between buying a t-shirt that was produced in a sweatshop in China or one from a company that is transparent and thus being held accountable for their working conditions, website consumers too should have the information to make informed decisions and the ability to influence the products they use.
Transparency helps hold companies accountable. Let’s hold our websites accountable too.

