Privacy and data are intrinsically linked. Today, vasts amounts of data about us are stored, analyzed, combined and shared by corporations and governments alike. This data is used in many ways, for example; to understand their users, for surveillance and security, for advertising, for political purposes, to create better products and services, for research. However, the lack of oversight and regulation of these practices have led to many misuse cases where the privacy of individuals and communities have been violated, which put them in vulnerable or sometimes dangerous situations. This brings us to the question — is it possible to balance the need for personal data and people’s right to privacy?
In his book, Nothing to Hide: The False Tradeoff between Privacy and Security (2011) Daniel Solove says we should not ask “whether privacy should be protected rather than how it should be protected” (p. 3). As designers of digital products and services, it is important to have a more nuanced understanding of data privacy and security, in order to make better decisions for those we design for.
To understand both sides of the topic of privacy, we will explore two opinion pieces from the New York Times’ “The Privacy Project”. The articles look at the topic of privacy through the lens of data collection practices, perceptions and realities of data usage, and the tension between the benefits and harms. The authors also provide considerations and suggestions for better data privacy practices.
Privacy vs Personalization
Thorin Klosowski’s article Personalization Has Failed Us (November 5, 2019) questions the value of recommendation or curation engines found in many popular digital platforms today (such as Spotify, Netflix, and Amazon). In order for these platforms to curate relevant content for their users, recommendation algorithms are fed user’s data such as usage patterns, content preferences, demographics, and location. This data is then collated into profiles that determine which personalized content is seen by the user.
Klosowski questions the value of algorithmic curation for the purposes of finding interesting and relevant content. According to him, the “thrill of self-discovery” is reduced to cold transactional experiences on these platforms. But he is more concerned about the tradeoff of personalization, as users give up large amounts of data which are then “sold to data brokers who create profiles for companies and governments to exploit”. He leaves us with these questions — Are we ok with this tradeoff? Who holds the responsibility for users’ privacy? Is it the user themselves, the platforms or the browser that mediates the interaction?
Klosowski’s suggestions for improvement:
- Platforms should be more transparent to help users see why they get certain recommendations.
- Users should be given more control over their data and also the flow of this data. For example, the visibility of third-party that have access to their data.
- Users should be able to opt-out of these systems completely including having the ability to delete their data.
Privacy vs The Public Good
In his article Data for the Public Good (October 24, 2019), Abdullah Shihipar talks about the dilemma between the increasing need for data and the growing concerns about privacy. According to Shihipar, data plays a very important role in helping us understand the world around us. Without the collection and analysis of individuals’ data, whether it be patient health records or data collected by the Census, we would not be able to evaluate and improve our public systems and services.
Data tells a story. Coming from a background in Public Health, Shihipar illustrates the importance of data collection through the examples of Flint Michigan’s water crisis and the maternal morbidity rates of black women. In both these examples, data from individual incidents were combined to tell a broader story about the reality of the people being affected. According to Shihipar, data has the power to shape our understanding of what’s happening in our communities and to help us make better decisions. Unfortunately, there have also been many cases of organizations and governments abusing this power by having access to sensitive personal information. Since pieces of our data can be combined to paint a detailed picture of our lives, the concern around privacy should be taken seriously. Shihipar argues for the benefits of data collection to serve the public good — “but only if the people who provide the data are treated with the respect they deserve.”
Shihipar’s suggestions for improvement:
- Basic protocols for data privacy that protects the rights of people.
- Restrictions on data sharing and access. For example, a government agency would need to obtain a warrant to access sensitive personal data.
- Increase the accessibility for people to know when someone else has viewed their records.
- Researchers should evaluate if their data collection will put people at risk and weigh up the potential harm versus the research value.
- Encourage data literacy by improving access to resources and open data sets to enable people’s own research and curiosity.
