Do you think that big data and data analytics introduce real threats to human culture or do they promise revolutionary changes that will ultimately benefit human life? What can we do to ensure that our digital technologies work to improve human and nonhuman lives?
The collection of people’s data certainly can introduce real threats to everyone’s lives. When ads, search results, and social circles are being pre-determined for people whenever they use the internet, alarm bells should start to ring. There is no free internet or universality if curated results are being displayed to you based off of a brand or politician’s monetary or political interests.
Collection of user data can bring quality of life updates to apps such as Google Maps. However while being able to display real time traffic is a great feature, why should it come at the expense of letting a company collect data about our personal lives? People freely voicing their opinions online are exposing themselves to companies that will take their data and show them messaging against their own opinion. All this in an effort to change that person’s mind because somebody is financially or politically motivated enough to pay the company to do it.
As humanity continues to progress through the information era, all of us should be more vigilant about the ads or posts we see and why we are being shown them.