Freedom under the gaze of Big Brother: Preparing the grounds for a liberal defence of privacy in the era of Big Data (original) (raw)

Big data, small freedom? Informational surveillance and the political

Today’s surveillance is not confined to the scope of images and visibility. More and more, its panoptism comprises possible futures and virtual modes of existence. This has led to a shift in the concepts of privacy, subjectivation and the political itself. Nevertheless, this exercise of power is anything but new: governance via statistical data, probabilities, social sorting or preventive measures has a long tradition in Western politics. This paper will give a brief historical review of this modern ‘statistical rule’.

When nudge comes to shove: Liberty and nudging in the era of big data

Technology in Society, 2019

In this article, I examine how nudging powered by Big Data relates to both negative and positive liberty. I focus in particular on how liberty is affected by appeals to irrational mechanisms. I conclude that it is problematic to use liberty as an argument for nudging. Such an argument would have to be based on the concept of positive liberty, empowerment and emancipation from irrationality, but I argue that even stronger arguments against nudging can be built on the same conception of liberty. I consider Big Data-powered nudging to have the potential to be both manipulative and coercive, and believe that we should be wary of the effects such efforts have on liberty. As I consider liberty to be part of what makes a good society, this becomes an effort to analyse one aspect of the effects of technology on society in general. While I do not accept arguments in favour of nudging based on liberty, it is easier to see that arguments based on utility could support nudging. I do not evaluate what the proper trade-off is between utility and liberty in this article, and it is obvious that, at times, utility trumps an absolute demand for liberty. However, I argue in favour of transparent traditional regulation and rational persuasion instead of nudging, when these approaches can serve the same purposes. Should we choose to nudge, we should not euphemise our efforts by claiming that we do so on behalf of freedom.

Personal data are political. A feminist view on privacy and big data.

Recerca. Revista de pensament i anàlisi, 2019

The second-wave feminist critique of privacy defies the liberal opposition between the public-political and the private-personal. Feminist thinkers such as Hanisch, Young or Fraser note that, according to this liberal conception, public institutions often keep asymmetric power relations between private agents away from political discussion and action. The resulting subordination of some agents to others tends, therefore, to be naturalised and redefined as a «personal problem». Drawing on these contributions, this article reviews the social and political implications of big data exploitation and questions whether personal data protection must remain a matter of «privacy self-management». It aims to show that feminist political theory can decidedly help to identify and tackle the root causes of what I call «data domination».

Too Much Info: Data Surveillance and Reasons to Favor the Control Account of the Right to Privacy

Res Publica, 2020

In this paper, we argue that there is at least a pro tanto reason to favor the control account of the right to privacy over the access account of the right to privacy. This conclusion is of interest due to its relevance for contemporary discussions related to surveillance policies. We discuss several ways in which the two accounts of the right to privacy can be improved significantly by making minor adjustments to their respective definitions. We then test the improved versions of the two accounts on a test case, to see which account best explains the violation that occurs in the case. The test turns out in favor of the control account.

The Uselessness of Big Brother

Datatata, Conference Proceedings, 2019

This paper presents three arguments opposing the usage of the ‘Big Brother’ narrative, which is used for describing current surveillance (or tracking) practices in the digital environment. Instead, it is argued, that the Big Brother narrative is an insu fficient and misleading concept which – however ingenious the original Orwell story may be – might hide the complex and more or less autonomous technological dynamics of non-human actors, bringing us to the point of fighting against a fictional image of our own.

The liberal value of privacy

Law and Philosophy, 2010

This paper presents an argument for the value of privacy that is based on a purely negative concept of freedom only. I show that privacy invasions may decrease a person’s negative freedom as well as a person’s knowledge about the negative freedom she possesses. I argue that not only invasions that lead to actual interference, but also invasions that lead to potential interference (many cases of identity theft) constitute actual harm to the invadee’s liberty interests, and I critically examine the courts’ reliance on a principle of ‘no harm, no foul’ in recent data breach cases. Using a number of insights from the psychology of human belief, I also show that the liberal claim for protection of privacy is strengthened by the observation that often the privacy invader cannot be held responsible for the influence on the invadee’s negative freedom.

Life In the Big Data World. Mass Surveillance and Social Control

Life in the Big Data World. Mass Surveillance and Social Control, 2021

The problem of big data companies claiming rights to the data of individuals is a hot topic in the 21st century. This work will aim to outline the positive and negatvie aspects of the internet of things and how it impacts our social as well as private live. This work analyses why big data and mass surveillance was allowed to thrive so freely for the last decade and it asks the question, why convienience of these technologies is making it hard to fight against them. The history of surveillance is discussed from the perspective of the United States of America and it will try to answer the question: what did the US government do wrong? Furthermore, the thesis looks into the case studies of different elections in the 21st century and how big data and social surveillance effects democratic processes in different countries across the world. The work will also look into the worst kind of example of mass surveillance, namely the Uighur minority in Western China, the social credit system and different methods of spying on minotiry groups will be talked about. Finally, the thesis ends with an analysis of the current state of the legislative action that is being taken against the big data companies as well as governments. Analysis of the EU and US legislation has been conducted as these two regions are by far the most advanced in terms of the opposition to these technologies.

Big Brother in the Information Age: Concerns about Government Information Gathering over Time

IEEE Security & Privacy, 2015

Revelations about the extent of the US National Security Agency's surveillance activities have led to a great deal of debate regarding government data gathering. e 1985, 1996, and 2006 iterations of the General Social Survey reveal public perceptions of whether such government power is an increasing threat to privacy. I n June 2013, e Washington Post and e Guardian published stories revealing vast and previously unknown surveillance activities being conducted by the US National Security Agency (NSA). 1,2 e revelations of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden prompted signi cant public discussion about government surveillance activities, citizen privacy, and the role of technology in such activities. 3,4 Indeed, a 2014 survey by the Pew Research Center found that most participants knew something about the NSA activities from the Snowden revelations and were worried about the government monitoring their data online. 5 However, concerns about privacy and surveillance related to information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the dramatic increase of information gathering, storage, and exchange they've enabled existed long before the Snowden revelations. 6-9 It would be a mistake to assume that these citizen concerns and government activities are new, even if aspects of the recent case appear unprecedented. Current debates about citizen privacy and government surveillance must be placed in a larger historical and cultural context to understand how the current state of a airs di ers and what the implications might be today given a richer understanding of how it ts into past pa erns.

Privacy is not the Antidote to Surveillance

Surveillance Society, 2009

We live in a surveillance society 2. The creation, collection and processing of personal data is nearly a ubiquitous phenomenon. Every time we use a loyalty card at a retailer, our names are correlated with our purchases and entered into giant databases. Every time we pass an electronic toll booth on the highway, every time we use a cell phone or a credit card, our locations are being recorded, analyzed and stored. Every time we go to see a doctor, submit an insurance claim, pay our utility bills, interact with the government, or go online, the picture gleaned from our actions and states grows finer and fatter. * An earlier version of this essay, co-authored with Jesse Hirsh, has been published as Privacy Won't Help Us (Fight Surveillance) on the nettime mailing list (June 26, 2002).