Re: <nettime> Il Manifesto: Let's get the network data

[Felix Stalder <felix@openflows.com>]

I think trust should not be placed primarily in technological solutions,
an app where we can fine-tune our privacy preferences.

Rather, the focus should be on creating social institutions that are
capable of analyzing these system-wide dynamics, based on all this data,
and then develop policies within a democratic framework. I know, lots of
people will argue -- as liberal theory has for the last 200 years --
that personal privacy is a precondition for democracy, but that
Gutenberg Galaxy argument is really limiting our thinking.

Let's face it, that system-level, deeply privacy-invasive, knowledge
exists already, but since it's housed in closed institutions (profit
and/or security-focused) nobdoy on the outside (scientists, public,
democratic decision-making bodies) has no access to it. For about 15
years, we could observe the consequences of this, and it's a vast
accumulation of wealth and power in the hand of an unaccountable few, at
expense of public institutions left to play catch-up they cannot win.

That leaves us with either issuing soft appeals, or accepting
unaccountable backroom deals, like the one that the Trump-administration
may, or may not, preparing with Google and Palantier. The latter is
really a worst-case scenario.

I think we should think in a different direction. How about mandating
that big data companies make their data available for public-interest
research? What public-interest research is in practice, and how to
handle the inevitable privacy issues, could be left to decide to a
science review board. There is lots of experience with that. Wouldn't
that open a much more interesting discussion?


All the best. Felix





On 26.03.20 15:07, Andreas Broeckmann wrote:
> folks, it's probably no surprise that we are getting, only this morning,
> two reposts that advocate a more aggressive employment of data-driven
> measures, both implying that data privacy may have to be curtailed in
> the service of public health. (i've excerpted the crucial passages from
> both messages below.)
> 
> in germany, the minister for health yesterday had to withdraw a law
> proposal that would have gone in this direction, in the face of strong
> protests, incl. from the ministry of justice.
> 
> i wonder what the options for technical solutions might be that could be
> more acceptable for people concerned about data protection and civil
> rights. (to me, the italian appeal to the benevolence of the GAFA seems
> all too naive, though understandable in the desperate situation in
> italy.) would it perhaps even be possible to think forward, to consider
> improvements to the technical systems that would give smartphone users
> (are we talking about anybody else?) a greater level of control about
> their data profiles, at least in the long run? or other real advantages?
> 
> just speculating...
> 
> -a
> 
> 
#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime>  is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org
#  @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject: