We are struggling to get the best out of data. Too much gets collected, not enough gets used. When it does, it is in ways that can harm both individuals and our societies and democracies. It concentrates money and power. We want data to be used to deliver personalised services, to make scientific discoveries, and to inform business planning and government policymaking. But we also worry about our data being used to target and discriminate against us. We distrust the organisations that collect it.
The current attempts to enable the benefits of data to be distributed more fairly are not going smoothly. The open government data movement aims to ensure that non-personal data collected by governments is open by default, to improve governance, citizen engagement, and innovation. But the World Wide Web Foundation’s Open Data Barometer shows that no government is yet making open data “a norm of day-to-day governing”.
Meanwhile, those who demanded that Facebook should make it easier for app builders to innovate and compete, by building services around its user data, now recognise that unconstrained access enabled Cambridge Analytica to microtarget political advertising. In Los Angeles, collecting data from scooters for use in city planning is raising questions about privacy. In Toronto, a proposed model for sharing and using sensor data generated a public backlash over fears about exploitation by Alphabet’s urban innovation company, Sidewalks Labs.