Our Data Our Selves

Mark Elliot University of Manchestermark.elliot@manchester.ac.uk

The New (Research) Data EnvironmentThe implications for Privacy and beyond

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Our DataOur Selves

Mark Elliot University of Manchestermark.elliot@manchester.ac.uk

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OpportunitiesBig data and commercially owned dataStrong and enriched traditional data sources: cohort studies, surveys combining attitude and physiological data.

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In the face of all of this dataWhere is privacy?Or for that matter: what is it?

One Orthodox SolutionAnonymisationEnsures legal compliance

05/08/2013 | 16Privacy, Confidentiality and Anonymisation

PrivacyConfidentialityAnonymisation

16Make distinction between these three elements.

Disclosure control is one of the aspects of protecting confidentiality.

Confidentiality is also protected via secure setting. Confidentiality concerns data.

Privacy is to do with people.

SDC is one of the ways in which we can protect confidentialityEasy to confuse confidentiality (data) with privacy (people) they are not the same, although are clearly related.

05/08/2013 | 17The Anonymisation Problem

17Ask the class is this table disclosive and why?We know vast majority of pop stars are not on a low income but that is not why it is disclosive.We know professors are not on high income (0).

05/08/2013 | 18The Anonymisation Problem

18Professor Brian Cox turns up!

But we all know who Brian Cox is so he could be taken out of the table. No risk to Brian Cox as we all know who he is and his likely high income.

05/08/2013 | 20The Anonymisation Problem

20Professor Brian Cox removed from table. We now have a zero again.This is called a subtraction attack taken known information from a table to render it disclosive.

PredictionAnonymisation as a meaningful construct will be dead within 15 years.

From data about to data of

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In the face of thisOur social research lexicon needs overhauling:Data environment(s)Data situations

And now for the new research paradigm.

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Radically Interdisciplinary

So thinking outside the box?

DataResearch FindingsPolicyAnalysis

ImpactBehaviour

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DataPolicy

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So privacy is dead?For all practical purposes, privacy is deadHyatt (2012)You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.McNeally (1999)

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Privacy and DisclosureThere is a close connection between our ability to control of who has access to our information and our ability to create and maintain different sorts of social relationships with different people; Rachels (1970)

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Disclosure and IdentitySocial Philosophy:Identity is represented to others through self disclosure; GoffmanOTOH our identity is in part formed through our interactions with others and their representations to us; Mead

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So Disclosure is:The mechanism by which we operate our privacy.Non-consensual disclosure subverts the psychologically critical process of self-disclosure.This - rather than the information - itself is why non-consensual disclosure is problematic.

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And so information privacy is....Critical to our the formation of our identitiesPersonhood rather ownership.My data is not just about me it is of meTo understand the meaning of privacy in a cultural context one must refer to processes of Autonomy Locus of Control

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The Information SocietyHas always existedInformational relations are isomorphic the societal structures and processes.An Information Society presupposes information Citizens.What sort of society/citizens do we want?What sort of privacy do we want?

ResolutionsLegalNew legal framework requiredData Abuse not Data ProtectionTechnicalReal time consent is a possibilityAn economic model is one approach

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Just in time consentPersonal Privacy Avatar

Request for personal data use

Just in time consentPersonal Privacy AvatarPersonal privacy policy

Refers to

Just in time consentPersonal Privacy AvatarPersonal privacy policy

Not relevant

Just in time consentPersonal Privacy Avatar

PersonText

Just in time consent

Embraces the singulartarian hypothesisIs this what we want?the need for A social science of data A cultural debateSocietal level re-educationAre paramount

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The Social Science of DataOur Data Our Selves: How does data impact on how we view our selves, our identity, our society? How do our attitudes affect how we view data?How do new forms of (ubiquitous) data impact on a norms, attitudes and values?

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Our Data Our Society: How do the control processes for data reflect and affect existing social structures? How are data shaped by the institutions and objectives that produce them?How are institutions affected by data about/within them? What is an institutional analogue of a digital self?

The Social Science of Data

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To Conclude:New technologies over the next 10 years will produce ever increasing types and quantities of data.New data change what we know about ourselves but also change our selves.For privacy the key question is not whether we still have privacy but what sort of privacy do we want a which is tantamount to deciding what sort of society we want.There are pressing need for a social science of data, a re-educated populace and an informed cultural debate about what sort of information society we want.

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Sheet1Income levels for two occupationsHighMediumLowTotalProfessors010050150Pop stars100505155Total10015055305

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Sheet1Income levels for two occupationsHighMediumLowTotalProfessors110050151Pop Stars100505155Total10115055306

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Sheet1Income levels for two occupationsHighMediumLowTotalProfessors010050150Pop Stars100505155Total10015055305

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