CURSUS DATA, PRIVACY AND SOCIETY
2020-2021
Sociale wetenschappen & Solvay Business School
,INHOUDSOPGAVE
Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 6
Mediated communication ............................................................................................................... 6
Privacy ............................................................................................................................................. 6
1. Desire for privacy ................................................................................................................................... 7
2. Rethinking concept of privacy ................................................................................................................ 8
3. Social value of privacy .......................................................................................................................... 10
Part 1 – Overview + Situating privacy .......................................................................................... 11
Law .................................................................................................................................................... 11
EU data protection (Mayer-Schönberger) ..................................................................................... 11
Current case study ......................................................................................................................... 15
TechCrunch: WTF is GDPR? ........................................................................................................... 15
GDPR .............................................................................................................................................. 18
GDPR Core definitions (Art.4) ........................................................................................................ 20
GDPR Principles (Art.5) .................................................................................................................. 21
GDPR Core definitions (Art.4) ........................................................................................................ 22
GDPR Rights of data subject (Art.12-23) ....................................................................................... 22
GDPR Lawfulness of processing (Art.6.1) ...................................................................................... 23
GDPR Core definitions (Art.4) ........................................................................................................ 24
GDPR Special categories (Art.9) .................................................................................................... 24
GDPR Core definitions (Art.4) ........................................................................................................ 24
GDPR Profiling (Art.22) .................................................................................................................. 25
GDPR Data protection by design (Art.25) ...................................................................................... 25
GDPR Data protection by default (Art.25)..................................................................................... 26
GDPR Data protection impact assessment (DPIA) (Art.35) ........................................................... 26
computer science – social sciences .................................................................................................... 27
Situating privacy ............................................................................................................................ 27
Situating privacy: Facebook case................................................................................................... 27
Situating privacy: computer science ............................................................................................. 30
Situating privacy: CS – Confidentiality........................................................................................... 31
Situating privacy: CS – Control ...................................................................................................... 33
Situating privacy: CS – Practice ..................................................................................................... 34
Databait privacy scoring framework ............................................................................................. 36
Situating privacy ............................................................................................................................ 37
Situating privacy: social science .................................................................................................... 38
2
, Beyond liberal concept of privacy ................................................................................................. 39
Political economy of Facebook ...................................................................................................... 40
Socialist privacy ideals and social networking............................................................................... 45
Digital rights organisations ............................................................................................................ 46
Non-commercial, non-profit internet platforms ........................................................................... 46
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 47
Part 2 – Overview + Privacy in Media and Communication Studies ............................................... 49
Artefact .............................................................................................................................................. 49
Introduction: media and communication ..................................................................................... 49
Meaning and function of privacy .................................................................................................. 50
Classic texts and authors: technology ........................................................................................... 50
Traditional debates & dominant schools: technology .................................................................. 53
Classic texts and authors: people .................................................................................................. 54
Classic texts and authors: Petronio ............................................................................................... 55
Traditional debates & dominant schools: people ......................................................................... 56
Classic texts and authors: society .................................................................................................. 56
Traditional debates & dominant schools: society ......................................................................... 57
China’s Social Credit System .......................................................................................................... 58
Practices – Socio-economic arrangements ........................................................................................ 63
Part 2: Current case study ............................................................................................................. 63
Part 2: Current case study - Privacy .............................................................................................. 64
Part 2: Current case study – Networked publics ........................................................................... 66
Part 2: Current case study – Architecture ..................................................................................... 67
Part 2: Current case study – Privacy norms and values ................................................................ 68
Part 2: Current case study – Boundary work................................................................................. 68
Part 2: Privacy in MCS – Practices ................................................................................................. 70
Movie: ‘The Social Network’ (2010) .............................................................................................. 70
Part 2: Privacy in MCS - Practices .................................................................................................. 70
Applying Bucher: algorithmic knowledge (Ana Pop Stefanija) ...................................................... 74
Part 2: Privacy in MCS – Socioeconomic arrangements ................................................................ 76
CI: Overview .................................................................................................................................. 77
CI: Google Buzz .............................................................................................................................. 77
CI: Notice-and-consent .................................................................................................................. 78
Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA) ..................................................................................................... 78
3
, OBA - Third-party tracking ....................................................................................................................... 79
OBA - Third-party tracking by Facebook .................................................................................................. 79
OBA - Cookie data .................................................................................................................................... 79
OBA - Cookie affordances ........................................................................................................................ 80
OBA - Real-Time Bidding (RTB)................................................................................................................. 80
CI: Notice-and-consent .................................................................................................................. 81
CI: Theory of contextual integrity .................................................................................................. 84
CI: Locating contexts online and explicating presiding norms ...................................................... 85
CI: Synopsis .................................................................................................................................... 87
Contextual Integrity Fundamentals ............................................................................................... 89
CI ethical legitimacy: evaluating norms......................................................................................... 90
Part 3 – Overview + Data and public values ................................................................................. 93
Empowerment-by-design .................................................................................................................. 93
Part 3: Current case study ............................................................................................................. 93
Disruption: advertising industry ............................................................................................................... 95
Part 3: Current case study ............................................................................................................. 96
Monitisation ............................................................................................................................................. 96
Part 3: Overview ............................................................................................................................ 98
Digital media.................................................................................................................................. 98
Part 3: Overview ............................................................................................................................ 98
Empowerment-by-Design: theory ............................................................................................... 104
Part 3: Data & public values – EbD .............................................................................................. 106
Cooperative responsibility ............................................................................................................... 107
Part 3: Data & public values – Cooperative responsibility .......................................................... 107
Online platforms.......................................................................................................................... 107
Toward cooperative responsibility .............................................................................................. 108
Coop resp: fairness ...................................................................................................................... 110
Coop resp: contentious content .................................................................................................. 110
Coop resp: diversity ..................................................................................................................... 111
Case study: sharing economy and labour conditions .................................................................. 112
Cooperative responsibility: lay-out ............................................................................................. 113
Cooperative responsibility: Uber ................................................................................................. 113
Cooperative responsibility: lay-out ............................................................................................. 114
Cooperative responsibility: Uber ................................................................................................. 115
Cooperative responsibility: lay-out ............................................................................................. 115
4
, Cooperative responsibility: Uber ................................................................................................. 116
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 116
Part 3: Current case study ........................................................................................................... 117
Data literacy .................................................................................................................................... 119
Part 3: Data & public values – Data literacy ................................................................................ 120
I. Google: the pioneer of surveillance capitalism ........................................................................ 120
II. A balance of power.................................................................................................................. 121
III. Search for Capitalism: Impatient Money and the State of Exception .................................... 122
IV. The Discovery of Behavioral Surplus ...................................................................................... 122
V. Surplus at Scale ....................................................................................................................... 125
VI. A Human Invention ................................................................................................................ 125
VII. The Secrets of Extraction ...................................................................................................... 126
VIII. Summarizing the Logic and Operations of Surveillance Capitalism ..................................... 127
5
,INTRODUCTION
Mediated communication
• Mutual shaping
o Information society (Frank Webster) -> Network society (Manuel Castells)
-> Platform society (José van Dijck)
o Individual privacy -> Contextual privacy -> Networked privacy
• From ‘social media’ to ‘connective media’ (van Dijck, 2013)
o Human connectedness is gradually replaced by automated connectivity
o Connectivity = engineered, curated and steered connectedness (i.e. activity
of creating social connections) that draws people to the platform to create
and consume content (UGC), advertising and data (through algorithms)
o The ‘social’ in ‘social media’ encompasses connectedness and connectivity
▪ Companies tend to stress the first and minimise the second meaning
Privacy
Solove, Daniel J. (2015) 'The meaning and value of privacy', in B. Roessler & D.
Mokrosinska (Eds.) Social dimensions of privacy: Interdisciplinary perspectives.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 71-81.
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,• ‘Our privacy is under assault’ by
o Business and industry
o Governments
o Employers
o Peers
▪ “The gossip that circulates in high school and college is no longer
ephemeral and fleeting”
• Conclusion?
o “With all these developments, many are asking whether privacy is still alive.
With so much information being gathered, with so much surveillance, with
so much disclosure, how can people expect privacy anymore? If we can’t
expect privacy, is it possible to protect it? Many contend that fighting for
privacy is a losing battle, so we might as well just grin and bear it.”
• Answer
1. Desire for privacy instead of expecting privacy
2. Rethinking concept of privacy
3. Social value of privacy
1. Desire for privacy
• ’Do people expect privacy anymore?’
o Law should protect privacy not because we expect it, because we desire it
• Privacy is much more than keeping secrets, but also about:
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, o Confidentiality
o Maintaining data security
o Having control over information
o Notifying about data others have and how it will be used = need for better
“data due process”
▪ E.g. innocent people on terrorist watch lists, with no recourse to challenge, financial
and employment decisions made based on unknown profiles, blacklist visitors
Tomorrowland
o So: “Privacy thus involves more than keeping secrets – it is about how we
regulate information flow, how we ensure that others use our information
responsibly, how we exercise control over our information, how we should
limit the way others can use our data.”
• Possible for law to limit how others use our data, cf. copyright law
o But how?
o Rethinking concept and value of privacy
2. Rethinking concept of privacy
• Rethinking concept of privacy
o Vague, especially in contrast to security, freedom of speech, efficient
consumer transactions, etc.
• Attempts to locate common denominator for all things we view as private is
wrong approach
o Many theories of privacy focus on nature of information or matter involved
▪ Seeking to identify various types of information and matters that are
private <-> no particular kind of information or matter is inherently
private (e.g. body, home)
o Reasonable expectation of privacy test, but how to determine
▪ Surveys and polls <-> enormous differences
▪ Examine behavioural data <-> knowledge lack (data literacy) ~ privacy
paradox
• But also different conceptualisation possible
o Privacy is not just what people expect but also about what they desire!
▪ Privacy is something we construct through norms and the law
• Focus for understaning privacy?
8
, o Focal point for theory on privacy should be on the problems that create a
desire for privacy and hence we want law to address, i.e. problems in
experience
o Not one thing, but many distinct and related things, so need to understand
privacy in a more pluralistic manner
• Framework for recognising privacy problems
o Four basic groups of harmful activities
1. Information collection: collecting/harvesting info, but no always
harmful
2. Information processing: store, combine, manipulate, search and use
3. Information dissemination: transfer to others or release
4. Invasion: impingement directly on individual
o Groups 1 to 3 moving further away from individual control, while group 4
progresses toward individual yet do not necessarily involve information
• Starts from ‘data subject’
o Individual whose life is most directly affected by activities classified in
taxonomy
o People / user / citizen / consumer / employee / etc.
• Basic groups of harmful activities
1. Information collection
▪ Surveillance: watching, listening or recording info; e.g. CCTV
▪ Interrogation: forms of questioning or probing for info; e.g. opt- out
issue
o Information processing
▪ Aggregation: combination various pieces of data; e.g. linking databases
▪ Identification: linking to particular individual; e.g. personal health data
▪ Insecurity: carelessnes of protecting stored info; e.g. data breach
▪ Secondary use: using collected info for purpose different from original
collection without consent; e.g. Cambridge Analytica
▪ Exclusion: failure to allow data subject to know how info is maintained
and used; e.g. data broker
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, o Information dissemination
▪ Breach of confidentiality: breaking promise of keeping info secret; e.g.
tex information
▪ Disclosure: revelation of truthful info about person that affects way
others judge reputation; e.g. libel
▪ Exposure: revealing another’s nudity, grief, or bodily functions; e.g.
sexting, revenge porn
▪ Increased accessibility: amplifying accessibility of info; e.g. Google
streetview
▪ Blackmail: threat to disclose personal info; e.g. extortion hacking
▪ Appropriation: use data subject’s identity to serve another’s aims and
interest; e.g. identity theft
▪ Distortion: dissiminating fase or misleading info; e.g. fake news
o Invasion
▪ Intrusion: invasive acts disturbing one’s tranquility or solitude; e.g.
house entering without warrent
▪ Decisional interference: incursion into data subject’s decisions
regarding private affairs; e.g. manipulative nudging, algorithmic
blackbox
3. Social value of privacy
• Social value of privacy
o People are social beings
o Value of protecting individual rights emerges from their contribution to
society
▪ ‘Social basis and social justification’ for civil liberties (Dewey)
o Protecting invidual privacy as society because good society protects against
excessive intrusion and nosiness into people’s lives
o Privacy has social value
• Conclusion
o Understaning privacy as a pluralistic concept with social value
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