Big Data —how bad really is it?
When encountered with the topic of social media companies having access to my data, a common first thought is “So what, companies have all of my data anyways, what more can they do with it?” And, honestly, the idea of giving up social media so that companies would have less access to my personal information has never really seemed like a trade-off I’ve been willing to make.
So, why are people so worried about companies holding user data?
For one, data can widen existing gaps due to societal norms. A Google study done by CMU showed that on job sites, men saw higher-paying opportunities than women did. This ties to a point made in Data Feminism, that “…data are not neutral or objective. They are the products of unequal social relations, and this context is essential for conducting accurate, ethical analysis.” The wage gap exists due to pay discrimination, unpaid obligations, and other social factors, but without taking these factors into account, this use of data exacerbates the issue. And while this might not affect us each individually, it can have its effects on a macro scale.
But, if we do want to talk about this on a more personal scale, AT&T is a great example. In 2015, AT&T was fined $25M by the FCC after employees at call-centers illegally disclosed the personal information of over 280K users. Customer names and SSNs were sold to third parties, who were then able to unlock customer phones and set the devices to work on networks other than AT&T’s. While this is such a rare incident, it shows how companies holding valuable information can affect people on an individual level.
In my opinion, this isn’t so much a problem with users putting their data out there, than it is with the way companies hold and use this big data. Obviously the intention of things like targeted ads are to provide a better customer experience. But when driven by profit, and under the guard of a lengthy privacy policy statement, companies can easily commit big data misuse, and I don’t think giving up the use of products that store data will be able to solve this issue on a macro scale.
Sources
D’Ignazio, C., & Klein, L. F. (2020) The Numbers Don’t Speak for Themselves. Chapter six in Data Feminism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2015/july/online-ads-research.html
https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/08/f-c-c-fines-att-25-million-for-privacy-breach/
Image: https://mumbrella.com.au/i-want-your-anonymized-social-media-data-522340
