Is Data Dignity the Key to Fixing the Internet?

Our online presence has increasingly become a large part of who a lot of us are and our data is our online presence, therefore our data is our identity. Every time we post a picture on Instagram or do a Google search, we are paying with a tiny part of our identity.

Before reading this post, I urge you to watch the video below to give some context to what I will be discussing in this post.

A few months ago, I stumbled across the video above when I was watching YouTube videos. This NYTimes Op-Ed from Jaron Lanier left me deeply moved and excited, I had never given thought to the worth of my own data. This idea of data dignity, where people are paid for their data and will pay for services that require data from us and others, felt revolutionary to me. All of our data holds value, whether we are aware of it or not and currently we are gaining little to nothing from the tech giants who are collecting our data. We produce data, and if we can gain control over the value of our data, our attention will be guided by self-defined interests rather than by manipulative platforms that are bound to advertisers or other third parties.

Lanier and E. Glen Weyl wrote, A Blueprint for a Better Digital Society, and in this article, they described how we can adapt the internet to better fit the needs of all individuals as data surveillance becomes more invasive and as wealth inequality becomes more severe. They wrote that their suggestion to combating these issues is:

“an emerging class of business models in which internet users are also the customers and the sellers. Data creators directly trade on the value of their data in an information centric future economy. Direct buying and selling of information-based value between primary parties could replace the selling of surveillance and persuasion to third parties. Platforms would not shrivel in this economy; rather, they would thrive and grow dramatically, although their profit margins would likely fall as more value was returned to data creators. Most important, a market for data would restore dignity to data creators, who would become central to a dignified information economy.”

We are all data creators, whether we realize it or not, and we have little to no autonomy over the data we have been creating. This concept of data dignity would give us back our autonomy especially at a time when we are all being urged to stay home due to the Covid-19 pandemic; our consumption of social media has increased as we try to stay connected with people in our lives that we do not live with. All of these social media platforms, from Facebook to Twitter, are collecting our data and making billions from selling the data we are providing them for free. Besides the fact that millions of people are staying home to avoid contracting coronavirus and to avoid spreading the virus, millions have become unemployed due to their workplaces being shut down. Data dignity would thus be beneficial to those currently facing financial hardships as it would provide them with more income, and as Lanier stated in the video, each individual would be receiving thousands of dollars.

Now you may be thinking, “well, I do own my data, I give it to these companies in exchange for the services they offer.” Well as Lanier noted in the NYTimes Op-ed, the mix of capitalism and socialism on the Internet has led to advertising which has turned into a manipulation scheme and billions have been made from this advertising. Lanier also discusses how we now are currently paying for video-streaming platforms such as Netflix and one of the main draws of Netflix for many people is that there are no advertisements in the form of commercials, and this is what other tech platforms that we are currently not paying for would become if we were to begin paying for them. In the Ted Talk below, Lanier reiterates this idea. I encourage you to watch the whole video, but if you are more interested in hearing about costs, begin at 4:30 and watch the rest of the talk.

So, you may be wondering, why aren’t more people discussing this, especially our elected representatives? Well, there are some who are advocating for tech companies to be compensating us for our data. For example, in the tweet below from Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, she states that we don’t own our data, and this is why tech companies have been able to amass billions of dollars.

Ocasio Cortez also makes an important point about how the internet was created with publicly funded research. Public funds were not only used to develop the internet, but also the computer and much of the technology in our phones and after decades of research, the private sector took over. It’s important to ask yourself, are you seeing any profit from your investment?

You also might remember, Andrew Yang, a former Democratic presidential candidate, whose signature policy was the “Freedom Dividend,” which would provide a universal basic income of $1,000 a month to every American adult. Many people questioned where we would get the money from to provide this type of income and in the video below, he explains where it would come from.

(Unfortunately, due to privacy setting, this video is not able to be played on Medium, but if you click on “Watch on Vimeo” it will redirect you to vimeo.com to watch the video.)

While Yang’s main goal was to lessen the effects of the job loses many people will see due to automation, the tech companies that would be taxed due to the profits they would be making from automation, are the same ones who are collecting data from us to even create these automated technologies in the first place. Although, it should be noted that Yang is advocating for UBI, while Lanier is advocating for organizations called “mediators of individual data” or MIDs which he described in A Blueprint for a Better Digital Society as:

“a group of volunteers with its own rules that represents its members in a wide range of ways. It will negotiate data royalties or wages, to bring the power of collective bargaining to the people who are the sources of valuable data. It will also promote standards and build a brand based on the unique quality and identity of the data producers they represent. MIDs will often perform routine accounting, legal, and payment duties but might also engage in training and coaching. They will help focus the scarce attention of their members in the interest of those members rather than for an ulterior motive, such as targeted advertising.”

One reason, many politicians may be avoiding the discussion about why we should own our own data, could be due to the fact that they’re completely aware of the value of our personal data and they’re collecting our data to ensure that when they are running for office, they can target the right type of audiences at the right time. For example, in 2016 Donald Trump’s campaign hired Cambridge Analytica, whose methods include building up detailed psychological profiles of individuals based on up to 5,000 data points per person. This enabled Trump’s team to gather data to identify key demographic groups or geographical areas that could vote either way and begin pushing advertisements upon them.

So, how can we get our elected officials to start caring about data dignity? We can start by sending letters to them, calling their offices, and even visiting them when they are home to discuss the importance. And if they’re not supporting the idea, begin supporting candidates who do believe that we should have autonomy over our data as this should be one of our top priorities as many Americans are struggling to make ends meet.

Besides speaking with elected officials, it’s also important to be having discussions with the people in our lives about data dignity. This will bring this idea to the consciousness of more people and possibly get them advocating for it. I personally showed Lanier’s video to a few of my friends and it opened up a discussion about how we feel the internet should be serving us, so I urge everyone reading this post to begin sharing either Lanier’s video or even this post as a gateway to begin critically thinking about how we can have the internet, which was publicly funded by our own tax dollars, serving us better.

For those who may be wanting more information about Data Dignity, here is the link for A Blueprint for a Better Digital Society, which I referenced throughout this post.