In a previous article, "We're Giving Everything Away," it was described how each of us is a product within various social media services. We trade our digital identity for the free use of these services. We pay, as it were, with a piece of our privacy. In itself, this principle is not necessarily a problem. However, it often remains unclear what exactly happens with our data. It's generally known that many organizations do their best to collect as much data as possible from everyone. Large marketing agencies are particularly successful in this and manage to earn substantial revenues from the sale of data. The idea behind this is that a lot of good information leads to the best match between supply and demand. The end result is then an interesting offer for the customer. But let's be honest: how often do we really get an interesting offer that meets an active need?
This is a translated article of https://sebastix.nl/blog/persoonlijke-data-zijn-vogelvrij/ where I used https://ppq.ai.
In this article, Sebastian Hagens zooms in on collections of personal data on the internet. He argues for transparency and manageability of personal data and ultimately sees business benefits for both citizens, customers, and internet users, as well as advertisers and providers.
Earning money through matching
Google has been earning billions for years with Adwords ads on websites. Google is the master of indexing websites and pages on the internet. Thanks to their link graph (the index of all those pages and relationships), we can now find almost all the information we need. Google owns the relationships in this graph, which forms the basis of their revenue model: matching supply and demand. These relationships classify the topics of web pages, how many visitors they get, and which websites refer to each other. The Adwords ads, therefore, always match the topic of the web page in principle. However, this does not necessarily mean that an ad also matches the needs of the visitor to that page.
Facebook has a lead over Google in terms of social data, with around 800 million users. It consists of a gigantic network of people who are in contact with each other, both actively and passively. Facebook is the master of indexing certain behaviors of individuals. Thanks to the well-known "Like" button on many websites, Facebook also tracks personal digital traces (even if you don't have a Facebook profile!). Facebook manages a rich social graph that unlocks a wealth of information about personal behavior and preferences. And advertisers know how to make money from this information.
Big (Data) Brother is watching you
The link graph of Google, the social graph of Facebook, and the interest graph of Twitter have one thing in common: our personal data is in them. These are data that we have traded for free services. Other internet companies are inspired by the data collection frenzy of these three big names. Our behavior is being massively recorded using (super) cookies, beacons, Facebook Connect, remarketing, spiders, bots, and flash cookies. The more data that's recorded about a person, the better advertisers can segment that person. As a result, internet visitors are increasingly seeing the same ads, receiving personalized search results, and finding less and less random information. Examples of the underlying technology are IQNOMY and PersuasionAPI.
The Filter Bubble has been a reality for some time now, and it seems that the internet is becoming increasingly boring. Visitors simply see the same content come by more often. For now, it seems that there's no end to this development. It's predicted that there will be more and more filters that provide personalized information and services.
But why can't we, as individuals, pull in the information we really need? Are all these connections made for me really in my interest or in the interest of consumers? Why would I make my data available without knowing what happens to it in which context? And how many companies already have such a database where different profiles are linked together?
Free game
Our personal data are outlawed. Once you give it away on the internet, you lose control over it. Data goes from hand to hand and ends up in databases of organizations you've never had contact with and never will. Anonymizing all this information doesn't offer any guarantees either. Once this data is linked to other databases, the risk grows that a profile becomes so richly filled that it can be relatively easily traced back to a person.
Data hunger
On average, every Dutch person is in 250 to 500 databases. The Dutch government is the world leader in collecting as much personal data as possible. The Netherlands is, therefore, the most challenging environment to discuss this situation. Citizens, internet users, should have the right to view, retrieve, and/or modify personal data. A strong start could be for each organization to set up an API, just like popular social media services have done. Through an API, it's easier to retrieve personal data known to a particular organization.
It's time to pay attention to the interests of citizens and put "privacy" issues seriously on the agenda. Occasionally, a rethink on this level is necessary in all stormy technological developments. Before it's too late.
Personal Graph
From the link graph, social graph, and interest graph, every person can build a personal graph. In principle, everyone already has such a personal graph, but in reality, it's still quite chaotically structured. It's a large splinter web: all your digital traces are on different locations on both the web and the devices you surf with. Your personal graph is the collection of your digital traces. In a next article, Sebastian Hagens will delve deeper into this personal graph; from which interests you can use it, which data belongs to it, how you can start retrieving your digital traces, and what the landscape looks like when your personal graph can exchange information with others.