I Have No Data to Hide, So Why Should I Care?
When encountered with the topic of social media companies having access to my data, a common first thought is “I am not hiding anything — so what if companies have all of my data?” And, honestly, the idea of giving up social media in the interest of privacy 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 gaps that already exist due to societal norms. An example is a study done by CMU showed that on Google ads, men were shown more higher-paying opportunities than women were. There are statistically more men than women in higher-paid positions, due to several societal factors, so the data that Google ads collects, based on demographics and salaries of current employees, to recommend different job applications to users is already skewed.
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 use of data without taking external factors into account exacerbates the issue of less women in higher-paid positions. 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 how companies holding our data can affect users 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. This is such a rare incident, but it shows how companies holding valuable information risks things like data breaches.
I think this isn’t so much a problem with users putting their data out there, than it is with the way companies hold and use it. The intention of such algorithms may not be intentionally bad, but the reason for holding user data is 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 our data will be able to solve such a layered issue.
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
