{"id":16991,"date":"2019-11-25T09:10:04","date_gmt":"2019-11-25T17:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2019\/11\/25\/news-10728\/"},"modified":"2019-11-25T09:10:04","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T17:10:04","slug":"news-10728","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2019\/11\/25\/news-10728\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cData as property\u201d promises fix for privacy problems, but could deepen inequality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Credit to Author: David Ruiz| Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2019 16:00:00 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n

In mid-November, Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang unveiled a four-prong policy approach<\/a> to solving some of today\u2019s thornier tech issues, such as widespread misinformation, technology dependence, and data privacy. Americans, Yang proposed, should receive certain, guaranteed protections for how their data is collected, shared, and sold\u2014and if they choose to waive those rights, they should be compensated for it. <\/p>\n

This is, as Yang calls it, \u201cdata as a property right<\/a>.\u201d It is the idea that, since technology companies are making billions of dollars off of what the American public feeds them\u2014data in the forms of \u201clikes,\u201d webpage visits, purchase records, location history, friend connections, etc.\u2014the American public should get a cut of that money, too. <\/p>\n

Data property supporters in the US argue that, through data payments, Americans could rebalance the relationship they have with the technology industry, giving them more control over their data privacy and putting some extra money in their pockets, should they want it. <\/p>\n

But data privacy advocates argue that, if what Americans need are better data privacy rights, then they should get those in an actual data privacy bill. Further, the data property model could harm more people than it helps, disproportionately robbing low-income communities of their data privacy, while also normalizing the idea that privacy is a mere commodity\u2014it\u2019s only worth the sale price we give it. <\/p>\n

To some, a data property model would only keep large corporations in control. No sudden wellspring of rights. No rebalance of power.  <\/p>\n

Ulises Mejias, associate professor at State University of New York, Oswego, described the data property model in a broader historical context. <\/p>\n

\u201cPaying someone for their work is not a magical recipe for eliminating inequality, as two centuries of capitalism have demonstrated,\u201d Mejias said. He said that, like plantation owners and factory owners, modern data-mining companies understand that, to maintain their profit streams, they have to allow some leniency towards those who they profit from\u2014the people.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, we will probably start to see more proposals to \u2018fix\u2019 the system by paying us for our data, even from \u2018progressive\u2019 figures like Yang or [Jaron] Lanier,\u201d Mejias said. \u201cThis, however, does not amount to the dismantling of data colonialism. Rather, it is an attempt to make it the new normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cThe surveillance mechanisms would not go away; they would just be paying us to put up with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Data as property<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In 2013, the computer scientist Jaron Lanier, who Mejias referenced, published the book Who Owns the World<\/em>, a forward-looking, philosophical analysis about our relationship with data and the Internet<\/a>. In the book, Lanier proposed a then-novel idea: People should be paid royalties for the data they create that goes on to benefit other people. <\/p>\n

Six years later, Lanier has refined his ideas into the banner of \u201cdata dignity.\u201d As he loftily told the New York Times in a video segment<\/a>, a recording of \u201cF\u00fcr Elise\u201d buoying his words:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou should have the moral rights to every bit of data that exists because you exist, now and forever.\u201d <\/p>\n

For data property or dignity supporters, owning your data is a first step toward meaningful, tectonic changes: individualized data privacy controls, higher economic returns, and balanced relationships with technology corporations.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what that society would allow, supporters say. <\/p>\n

One, if consumers own their data, they can make decisions about how companies treat it, including how their data is collected and then shared and sold to separate, third parties. By having the option to say \u201cno\u201d to data sharing and selling, consumers could, in effect, say \u201cno\u201d to some of the most common data privacy oversteps today. No more menstrual tracking information shared with Facebook<\/a>. No more GPS location data aggregated publicly online<\/a>. Maybe even no more Cambridge Analytica<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Two, the option to sell data could potentially benefit countless Americans with a near-endless revenue stream. Christopher Tonetti, associate professor of economics at Stanford University\u2019s Graduate School of Business, argued in the Wall Street Journal<\/a> that data is unlike most any other commodity because its value continues after the first point of sale. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith most goods\u2014think of a plate of sushi or an hour of your doctor\u2019s time\u2014one person\u2019s consumption of the good means there is less to go around. But data is infinitely usable,\u201d Tonetti said. \u201cThat means that if consumers could sell their data, they would have the ability to share the data from any transaction with multiple organizations\u2014to their own benefit and that of society as a whole.\u201d <\/p>\n

This potential passive, money-making venture gains even more appeal when major political players\u2014like Yang\u2014argue that \u201cour data is now worth more than oil<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there’s missing information in that statement, say data privacy advocates. Our data is worth more than oil to who? <\/em><\/p>\n

Data as property flaws<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Curiously absent from the discussions about data property rights are detailed analyses about the actual value of consumer data. Sure, the numbers may show that the data-driven advertising industry has eclipsed the dollar-size of the oil industry, but there is no data analogue for what an oil barrel costs. There\u2019s no going rate for Facebook likes, no agreed-upon exchange rate for Instagram popularity. <\/p>\n

Hayley Tsukuyama, legislative analyst at Electronic Frontier Foundation, said that using available numbers does not provide reliable statistics when trying to determine data\u2019s \u201cvalue.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at a sell list of location data, and do some back-of-the-envelope math, where a company paid this much for it, and there\u2019s 50 people on the list, and therefore, their data is worth this\u2014that\u2019s not how it works,\u201d Tsukayama said. She said we similarly cannot track the value of the average Facebook user\u2019s data based on a simplistic equation of dividing the company\u2019s ad revenue by its user base. <\/p>\n

Tsukayama also pointed to a bigger problem with the data as property model: Consumers will not be selling their data, so much as they\u2019ll be selling their privacy. And for some types of data, the invasion of privacy will always cost too much, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy location data may cost a penny to buy, but to me that\u2019s worth no amount of money\u2014there\u2019s no amount of money you could pay me to make me okay with someone knowing my location,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Chad Marlow, senior advocacy and policy counsel at ACLU, added another problem about data valuation: It\u2019s subjective. A company that sells Legos, he said, would pay more for children\u2019s data, much in the same way that a company that sells cars would pay more for adults\u2019 data. <\/p>\n

Taking the example to what he called an extreme, Marlow said: <\/p>\n

\u201cMy tax returns? Probably not worth so much. Trump\u2019s tax returns? Probably worth a big deal!\u201d <\/p>\n

In all these situations\u2014whether its vague data valuation, contextual pricing, or putting a literal price tag on privacy\u2014both Tsukayama and Marlow agreed that some consumers will be harmed more than others.<\/p>\n

Much like the pay-for-privacy<\/a> schemes that have bubbled up<\/a> in the past year, data property models would enable companies to take advantage of low-income communities that need the extra money. It\u2019s much easier for a middle-class earner to say no to a privacy invasion than it is for stressed, hungry families, Marlow said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have parents who are struggling to put food on the table\u2014who are eating bread and drinking water for multiple dinners\u2014and you say \u2018I will give you money if you sell your data\u2019 and you don\u2019t even say how much, they will say yes immediately,\u201d Marlow said. \u201cBecause they cannot afford to say no.\u201d <\/p>\n

Finally, the actual money going into consumers\u2019 pockets from a data property model might be a \u201cpittance,\u201d Tsukayama said. She added that, for the consumers who take the money, it isn\u2019t worth the cost to their privacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a particularly pernicious form of privacy nihilism, where someone would say \u2018Fine, do what you want, just throw me a little bit back,\u2019\u201d Tsukayama said, imagining a bargain in which consumers are fine with privacy invasions so long as they get a little bit of money. <\/p>\n

So, if low-income communities are disproportionately harmed, and if consumers receive pennies, and if the sale of privacy becomes normalized for those pennies, who wins in this model? <\/p>\n

According to Marlow, the \u201cdata agents\u201d\u2014organizations or companies that will facilitate the sale of consumers\u2019 data to one company and then another company and then another. For every single step of those transactions, Marlow said, each data agent will get a cut of the sale, with consumers further down the line to get their share. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you get a cent and they get a nickel, and they do this hundreds of thousands of times, there\u2019s real money to be made for them,\u201d Marlow said. <\/p>\n

He said there are already examples of these types of companies. He said he pushed back against one earlier this year, when a data property bill landed in Oregon. <\/p>\n

 Data as property legislation<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In the past year, the idea to treat data as property has escaped the niche audiences served by papers like the Wall Street Journal and the Harvard Business Review.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s now inspired lawmakers across the US. <\/p>\n

For US Senators Mark Warner and Josh Hawley, who together introduced the DASHBOARD Act<\/a>, giving consumers better transparency into the value of their data would better enable consumers to make informed decisions about what tech platforms to use. For Representative Doug Collins of Georgia, who proposed a bill to protect online privacy<\/a>, giving the American people the right to own their data is a cornerstone to navigating the future economy. <\/p>\n

But the clearest legislative push for data property rights landed in Oregon earlier this year in Senate Bill 703<\/a>. Introduced by one state senator and two representatives, the bill was strongly supported by a company called Hu-manity.co, a seemingly small shop with the big idea that legal ownership of data property should be the next, universal human right. <\/p>\n

In 2018, Hu-manity.co announced a way to try to provide consumers with that right: its own app, dubbed #My31 (there are currently 30 agreed-upon universal human rights per the United Nations). The app, which focuses strictly on medical data, gives consumers an option to declare how they would like that data to be used, including leasing, sharing, donating, or getting paid for it. <\/p>\n

#My31, then, aligned perfectly with SB 703: A bill to allow Oregonians to sell their medical data for money. <\/p>\n

Hu-manity.co was far from alone in supporting the bill; many similar companies submitted written testimony for lawmakers to consider. SB 703, the companies said, was a strong step toward protecting consumers\u2019 rights to own and share their medical records as they see fit, potentially enabling them to better develop a comprehensive profile, no matter which hospitals or providers they\u2019d used in the past. Further, some companies said, the ownership of medical data would also allow users to more easily donate that data to medical research. <\/p>\n

Marlow saw the bill differently. <\/p>\n

\u201cBeware the tech industry\u2019s latest privacy Trojan Horse,\u201d he wrote in March<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cHu-manity.co argues that, insofar as patient data is already being sold, its legislation is merely designed to give consumers \u2018ownership\u2019 of their data and a cut of the profits,\u201d Marlow said. \u201cBut savvy bill readers will note that the proposed laws contain no defined percentage of the profits patients are entitled to, so they could receive mere pennies of Hu-manity.co\u2019s revenue in return for giving up their privacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Health Wizz, a company that also lets users control their medical data, wrote in its testimony<\/a>: \u201cWe don\u2019t need more privacy legislation,\u201d but instead, better transparency. <\/p>\n

Introduced in January, SB 703 is currently before the state Senate\u2019s Joint Committee on Ways and Means. <\/p>\n

Winners and losers<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Depending on who you ask, the ability for consumers to own their data will produce one of two winners\u2014consumers or corporations. <\/p>\n

According to Mejias, the associate professor at SUNY Oswego, though, there is no reason to expect the data property model to solve our current privacy problems, it will only deepen them:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe promise of a few more bucks at a time when social support systems are disappearing and inequality is rising would simply re-create an unequal system where those with more means can afford privacy and freedom, and those with less means are subjected to more intrusion, surveillance and quantification, which ultimately perpetuates their position.\u201d <\/p>\n

The post \u201cData as property\u201d promises fix for privacy problems, but could deepen inequality<\/a> appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/feed\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Credit to Author: David Ruiz| Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2019 16:00:00 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Data property supporters in the US argue that, through data payments, Americans could rebalance the relationship they have with the technology industry, giving them more control over their data privacy and putting some extra money in their pockets. But the cost to privacy, some say, is too high. <\/p>\n

Categories: <\/p>\n