Do people really want to manage their data?

This is one of an occasional series examining misconceptions that people have about personal data empowerment and personal data stores.

When Mydex talks about empowering people with their own data, putting them in control, enabling them to manage their data and so on, we often get pushback. Surprisingly often, in fact.

The thing is, we are told condescendingly, “People just don’t want to manage their data”. Here, for example, is how one paid adviser to the Scottish Government recently responded to a debate about digital identity and the personal data needed to underpin it put it:

“The problem with the ID world is the misconception that a user really wants an ID let alone own their data.”

From our perspective and experience working with real people this is nonsense and here’s why.

Well, duh!!

That’s our first response when we’re told that people don’t want to manage their data: well, duh!

Generally speaking, people don’t want to have to work for a living or do household chores. But they still have to, whether they want to or not. Ditto, with personal data. If we want to get stuff done nowadays — any sort of online dealings with almost any sort of organisation — we have to provide some information about ourselves. Quite often, it can be a lot of information, and we not only have to provide this information but prove it’s true too. So, whether we like it or not, we have to manage our data. The same goes for interacting by the phone, in person or in writing via forms. Everyone needs to use their personal data and know things about themselves and their lives.

The implication of someone declaring that ‘people won’t want to manage their data is: ”therefore, there’s no point in trying to help them do so”. The logic of the argument goes like this: “People don’t want to do household chores, so therefore there’s no point providing them with washing machines or vacuum cleaners. What’s wrong with a bit of elbow grease?”

Often, behind this almost-sneering condescension lies something more sinister. It goes like this: “People don’t want to manage their data but we do. So why don’t you leave us free to manage people’s data (so that we can use their data in our interests rather than theirs without even involving them)?”

But it’s so complicated!

A second reason for arguing that people don’t want to manage their data is because it’s so complicated. It’s true. Currently, it is incredibly complicated. To really manage our data, we would have to jump through all the necessary hoops to get inside hundreds of different organisations systems, read and understand their privacy policies, find out how to adjust the settings, and make these adjustments.

An awful burden in other words. A huge amount of what we call FERC — Friction, Effort, Risk and Cost. If this is what ‘managing your data’ means, then of course nobody wants to do it. The same goes for the manual way in which all have to keep our own records, largely in paper files of some kind.

But does it really have to be that complicated? Of course it doesn’t. The complexity we see around us to today is invented and imposed by corporate lawyers trying to make things as complicated and difficult as possible, so that their paymasters can get away with as much as possible.

In reality, managing your data can and should be simple. People should be able to see every organisation they have shared their data with on one single consents dashboard, and the content of these consents can and should be incredibly simple, boiling down to just a few obvious questions such as ‘what service is this data being used for?’, and ‘what data is needed to provide this service?’

That’s what ‘managing your data’ should look like: easy and simple, even to the degree that there are tools working automatically for you, under your instruction ‘as you sleep’ so that you don’t even have to think about it — like using a direct debit or standing order to make regular payments. These are the sorts of data management services we at Mydex are developing — services designed to strip out all that artificial, imposed complexity to make managing and using your data as simple as using a smart phone banking app, if not simpler.

Those who insist that citizens don’t want to manage their data ignore all this. Sometimes, people get so fixated with how things currently are that they can’t imagine it being any different, and this is a case in point. But in our experience the ‘it’s all too complicated!’ argument is also often used by those with a hidden agenda. They have a vested interest in keeping things as complicated as possible — because it’s this that gives them the opportunity to take advantage of people not managing their data. They know that complexity drives resignation, and that is what they are after.

For what purpose?

When we talk about citizens managing their data, some people seem to assume we think that ‘control’ and ‘managing your data’ is supposed to be a desirable end in itself. As if people want to manage their data for the sheer hell of it!

Most people want to exercise control over their money, but they don’t want to exercise this control for the sake of it, because they like exercising control. They want to exercise control because they want to avoid the risks and harms of not exercising this control and because they want to access the benefits that come from being in control. Like going to work because you want to enjoy the benefits of the money you earn.

Those who say ‘people don’t want to manage their data’ simply ignore this question of purpose. But it is critical. Mydex doesn’t want to help citizens manage their data simply for the sake of managing their data. We want to help them manage their data so that they can access the benefits it brings — of getting stuff done in their lives, making it easier to access and use services, saving time, avoiding duplication and repetition of effort, eradicating the need to fill in forms, and so on.

Conclusion

Yes, there is a tiny element of truth to the claim that people don’t want to manage their data. Yes, today the way things stand, it’s a chore that most people would like to avoid. But are those who insist that people don’t want to manage their data actually suggesting any ways to improve the situation?

No. Almost invariably, they are not. They are using it as an excuse to do nothing. Or worse, to defend a hidden agenda. They don’t want citizens to control their own data, because they want to control this data for their own purposes.

Mydex wants to empower people with their data so that they can use their own data to improve their lives. Doing so involves ‘managing your data’, and we are committed to making this as simple and easy as possible.

Seen from this perspective, does anyone really not want to ‘manage their data’?