In this linking assignment, I am reviewing Kirn Bhela’s Network Assignment Using Golden Record Curation Quiz Data. Both Kirn and myself expressed that the collected data is not systematically arranged to explain why these data are being collected, what kind of messages are these data trying to communicate, and how are they going to affect real case scanarios. In the 21st century, “information is becoming more fragmentary and is lacking in any organizing structure (Weinberger, 2007).” Consequently, it is crucial for data analysts to make sense out of the collected data and present valuable infomation.
In this course we learned that collecting data is the dominating role in big data analysis, and the collected data explains certain behaviors and eventually aims to predict future behaviors (O’Neil, 2017). Prompted by the market-driven economy, and accompanied with insufficient information protection and data regulation. There are a huge grey area which allows the incubation of dark patterns and unethical designs. Some dark designs are noticeable and more obvious, such as online fraud. Some unethical designs are not noticeable but have penetrated our lives.
Imagine when you log in Facebook (which now called Meta), the app will populate up a window asking for your consent to accept long pages of terms and conditions, otherwise you will not be able to use the app. I doubt anyone really read the terms and conditions from top to bottom, and even if they did, they have no choice but to accept the terms that says “We don’t sell your personal data to advertisers, and we don’t share information that directly identifies you (such as your name, email address or other contact information) with advertisers unless you give us specific permission (Facebook, 2021).”
Did you get that? That means if you accept the terms and conditions your information will be sold to advertisers. And if you don’t accept these terms, you cannot use the app. This doesn’t sound right to me. I have to give away my information so I can use the app? And Facebook get to sold my information to make profits. In the past ten years, social media advertising and marketing have been the driving froce of its rising revenues, Facebook reached 86 billion US dollars in 2020 fiscal year (Statista, 2021). Although the U.S. government had launched a lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg, personally I doubt he will stop stealing people’s personal information because he has no turning back.
Going back to the topic about data analysis, I echo with Tristan Harris’s (2017) suggestion on building new models and accountability system to govern our technological future. Shifting from disattraction to focus, from diversion to attention, and from unethical design to beneficiary and ethical design. I can imagine data scientists and analysts utilizing data in solving poverty, improving education, and many other areas of our future. It might take more than one hand, it needs joint endeavor from individuals, businesses, and government entities. Where there is hope, there are positive changes.
References
Facebook. (2021). Terms of Service. Retrieved from here.
Harris, T. (2017). How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day. Retrieved fromhttps://www.ted.com/talks/tristan_harris_the_manipulative_tricks_tech_companies_use_to_capture_your_attention?language=en
O’Neil, C. (2017, April 6). Justice in the age of big data. Retrieved June 18, 2019, from ideas.ted.com website: https://ideas.ted.com/justice-in-the-age-of-big-data/
Statista. (2021). Facebook’s Annual Revenue from 2009 to 2020. Retrieved from here.
Weinberger, D. (2007). Everything is miscellaneous: The power of the new digital disorder. Macmillan.
