The Value of Transparency: Bulk Data and Authoritarianism

Abstract

Transparency is important for liberal democracies; however, the value of transparency is difficult to articulate. In this article we articulate transparency as an instrumental value for providing what we call ensurance and assurance to liberal democratic citizens. Ensurance refers to the property of liberal democracies which prevents it from sliding into authoritarianism and assurance is the property whereby citizens are assured that ensurance exists. Looking at the rise of bulk data collection and use afforded by information communication technologies, this paper focuses on the way that technologies disrupt relations between the state and its citizens, and suggests Value Sensitive Design as a methodology to protect key aspects of liberal democracies.Bulk data collection makes the achieving of ensurance and assurance more difficult due to two types of opacity which arise as a result of the practice: technical opacity-the difficulty for citizens to understand the technology behind bulk data collection; and, algorithmic opacity-opacity which results from properties inherent to algorithms which guide the collection and processing of bulk data. Design requirements will be suggested to respond to the disruptions caused by ICTs between liberal democracies and their citizens which threaten the necessary value for liberal democracies of representativeness.

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“…The second, related constraint is the information asymmetry created by technologies generating more information for governments about citizens without a commensurate increase in citizens’ knowledge of the state. Robbins and Henschke (2017) argue that this puts a premium on the value of representation but that assumes that the same constraints do not apply to representatives.…”

“…Medhora and Owen (2020) have proposed a new international framework for digital governance to mirror the Bretton Woods institutions. Robbins and Henshcke (2017) argue for practice of value sensitive design aimed at embedding specific moral values such as representation into the technologies as the means for ensuring they reflect the will of citizens. Masuga (2018) has observed the developers themselves have worked on “technical recommendations aimed at creating baselines for accountability (106).…”

“…Transparency is another such criterion as it can be seen as a contributor to justice and fairness. It also serves other values such as representation (Robbins & Henschke, 2017) and as“...a necessary step to accountability” (Eaglin, 2017:111).…”