Why should you care about Dark Data? A Personal Experience

I was oblivious to the inner workings of data flowing around on the internet. I am the type of person who has nothing to hide. I say to myself, if my data is being used by companies, that’s okay, I am not doing anything evil after all. In fact, my data helps the companies give me a better online experience. An example will be seamless online shopping experiences. As soon as I search for a particular product, I see other suggestions for that same product or even a variety of related products on other websites and online platforms. Isn’t that convenient? I get relevant alternatives that are scattered all over the internet for free. Sounds amazing, doesn’t it? I never bothered or cared about how the internet was able to show me a particular online product everywhere. I thought it saved me time and the hassle of finding the perfect product. Well, this free service may be one of the best online shopping experiences but my “I do not have anything to hide” mindset took a large turn as I learned about the hidden and dark use of our data on the internet. This article shares how my mindset of “I have nothing to hide” changed to “everyone must know this” and to “we all need rights to privacy on the internet”.

Digital advertisement may seem harmless, connecting products to interested consumers, but it has lead to the establishment of an advertising model that is very harmful. This model uses targeting to effectively send tailored adverts to consumers. Compared to the traditional advertisement in the real world where adverts are created without targeting, digital advertisement can send particular messages to particular audiences without their permission or knowledge. Huge online companies use online users’ data, the sites they visit, the other online users they talk to, the videos they watch and many more online activities to determine what a user may like. These activities are tailored attributes of the online user and used as a criterion of targeted advertisement. Most of the time, these criteria, framings, groups, and classes that online users are placed in are done without empathy or moral, they are mostly biased and false. The problem can cause great harm to different kinds of online users. Different social groups may receive differently targeted adverts which makes it unfair to other social groups. For example, black people may not be seeing adverts of high-end housing or real estate due to the assumption of the supposed economic instability of black people. What if this time, the online user an average white man? The white man will only see the high-end advertisement for real estate. Yes, this problem could be solved if these biases or assumptions are fixed but if that same principle or method is used for other models, that is, when data becomes even darker. I read an article was written by Cracked Labs, “Corporate Surveillance in Everyday Life” where alternate IDs, that cannot be linked to you directly, also known as Pseudo IDs are amassed and used for business. Data Brokers as I learned; collect, buy or license personal data without our knowledge! Can you imagine this? Our “digital selves” are being bought and sold like goods and services. I felt like a ‘digitally colonized citizen’- could this be high-tech colonialism? That’s not all… These companies further analyze, sort, make inferences, categorize us and eventually sell thousands of our attributes to their clients. Wait! Hold on, so our “digital selves” are looking more and more like our actual identity? Are their inferences accurate? Who are they selling us to? At this point, my mind is filled with so many questions. This was the start of my transition to a data privacy-aware citizen. I had a sudden, burning desire to learn more about my online privacy. After all, I do care what my data is being used for even if I don’t have anything to hide. At the very least, everyone deserves the right to know what their “digital selves” looks like, to be able to correct certain conclusions or biases, delete their digital self or better still be able to control the business side of running their own “digital data” if that was a possibility. What if one can manage his or her online data, in the sense that, the person controls which company has access to their online data and at what cost? Would that be a better model, than these online companies using our data as they please?

Yes, I may not mind if they have my data, but using my data in such shrewd ways without my knowledge is very evil. The thought of how deep my data was being used got me into the rabbit hole of finding the need to care about my data. How dark is the world of data flow on the internet? I kept learning, this time, I read an a book by Cathy O’Neil, “Weapons of Math Destruction”. This book highlights the inner working of the tools used to collect, analyze, sort, categories our “digital selves” before we are sold and bought. The answer is algorithms! Now, this is not the regular maths as we know it, it is more complex. These mathematical structures are used to harness colossal amounts of data to help create patterns in whatever category the designer wants to get out of our “digital selves”. I was impressed by the advancement of the technology deployed to do such great tasks. I admired it actually, but what got me to have more concern, was that the people who designed or created these algorithms did not understand the inner workings of the algorithms. They did not know how results were concluded. The algorithms are too large and complex for them to understand, let alone explain to us if we were to ask how our “digital selves” was placed in a particular category. Wow! So they are not only partaking in “digital colonialism” but they don’t even know how we are selected or grouped for business? Why would anyone run a business that they do not understand in the first place? While using our identities without our knowledge? The reason is money.

Money, well, they call it capitalism but I like to call it greed and unnecessary competition. Think about it, putting a price on identity wouldn’t be cheap, it will definitely be more expensive in the real world. The buyers of our “digital identities” are obviously large online platforms who can spend millions on our “digital selves”. This market is ruled by the high rollers and us, the mere “digitals” are nothing but products. We are nothing but pawns being used all in the name of increasing revenue and finding ways to beat the competition. This is where I drew a thick distinctive line and broke! I am being used, if I didn’t care about the use of my data, others may care. If I didn’t have anything to hide, other may have things they do not want public. If I enjoy online experiences, others may want to be forgotten online. Others may just want to be able to correct any information about them on the internet. Others may be placed in certain circumstances in life which were predicted by an algorithm. I believe we all have the right to know what is happening with our data on the internet and to make the choice of how our “digital selves” can be used. We need to be free from “Digital Colonialism”.

The sad part about all this is, most of these companies who transact business with our “digital selves” start off with very amazing human-centered solutions to better humanity. Sadly, along the line, the thirst for money and power clouds their moral compass. They go to unimaginable lengths to make money or to be the leaders in their industry all at the expense of our identity and privacy. It is time we all care about data privacy to ensure rules and regulations are created and followed just like the real world. I have lost trust and confidence in the huge online platforms until they clearly and plainly show us what they have on us and how they are using our data, I am now data conscious. I hope we all see the need to be more aware of how our “digital selves” connect to our real selves and how we all deserve privacy online as we do in the real world.

Below are some things I had no idea about and I would love to share them with you and some solutions to help you be more data conscious, aware and be private on the internet.

How to message securely and privately. You can share anything and everything without worrying. Your data is extremely private. Download Signal now, an open source privacy messaging app.
How to check if online trackers are tracking your online activities. Test if your website is being tracked by any third party with Panopticlick.
How to protect your browsers from tracking. Download and install Privacy Badger.
How to check what Facebook or Twitter thinks of you through the use of their platforms. Get your predictions at Data Selfie using Magic Sauce, a tool designed by the University of Cambridge.