Sunlight alone is not a disinfectant: Consent and the futility of opening Big Data black boxes (without assistance)

Abstract

In our attempts to achieve privacy and reputation deliverables, advocating for service providers and other data managers to open Big Data black boxes and be more transparent about consent processes, algorithmic details, and data practice is easy. Moving from this call to meaningful forms of transparency, where the Big Data details are available, useful, and manageable is more difficult. Most challenging is moving from that difficult task of meaningful transparency to the seemingly impossible scenario of achieving, consistently and ubiquitously, meaningful forms of consent, where individuals are aware of data practices and implications, understand these realities, and agree to them as well. This commentary unpacks these concerns in the online consent context. It emphasizes that self-governance fallacy pervades current approaches to achieving digital forms of privacy, exemplified by the assertion that transparency and information access alone are enough to help individuals achieve privacy and reputation protections.

Towards platform observability

“…It needs to take on board efforts to combine different forms of evidence, and above all, to become attentive to the selective and mediated character of knowledge-building. Similar to the flawed logic of 'notice and consent' in the area of privacy protection, which holds that informing individuals on the purposes of data collection allows them to exercise their rights, a superficial understanding of transparency in the area of platform regulation risks producing ineffective results (see Obar, 2020;Yeung, 2017).…”

Mediatisation and datafication in the global COVID-19 pandemic: on the urgency of data literacy

“…It is important to ensure transparency and open the ‘black boxes of algorithmic decision-making’ ( Prinsloo, 2020 ). However, access and openness are not universal solutions ( Obar, 2020 ). Data are complex issues and lay people need support and guidance in understanding what data mean for them and others ( Obar, 2020 ).…”

“…However, access and openness are not universal solutions ( Obar, 2020 ). Data are complex issues and lay people need support and guidance in understanding what data mean for them and others ( Obar, 2020 ). That is not to say that citizens have no clear expectations towards datafication.…”

Betraying Blockchain: Accountability, Transparency and Document Standards for Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)

“…We know these practices have a manipulative effect, more profound than any other data capture/advertising business model of the past [1]. Developments in technology have allowed for a sophisticated Wizard of Oz-like presentation that hides how its algorithms interpret the data it collects and aggregates; however, concepts of transparency are thrown around as claims that the increasingly sophisticated technology can provide these qualities implicitly [2,3]. Some applications (i.e., Google, Facebook, Microsoft), for instance, make use of design capabilities to influence users' data privacy settings, a practice now being deemed "dark patterns" [1].…”

“…Recently an NFT was auctioned off at Christie's for $69 million that a represented digital artwork, for instance [10]. At the time of writing (Aug 2021), the total trading value of NFTs in the last 24 h is $ 3,656,194,242.58 [11]. NFTs are generally created with the ERC-721 standard written in the Solidity language and make use of public blockchain protocols and platforms such as Ethereum, EOS, Cardano, Flow, and Tron, among others [10][11][12][13].…”