AND Digital: The evolution of trust and our personal data usage #techUKDigitalPS
One of the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic was that our lives became ever more digitised. To maintain business continuity as much as possible, many organisations adapted to the disruption by implementing tech and data strategies in record time. However, it wasn’t just the private sector. The public sector too had to make a number of near-overnight pivots to digital: GPs enabled e-consultations, virtual visits were created so that prisoners could continue seeing friends and family and the education sector moved learning resources and teaching online, to name just a few.
In many instances, the digital services that sprung up during this time aren’t budging. Rather than being temporary measures, they’ve become permanent solutions as our habits, preferences and lifestyles changed during the pandemic. One of the outcomes of living in this increasingly digitised way is that our personal data has been scattered across a widening landscape. This wouldn’t be such a problem if we had a map of the terrain, but we don’t. Rather, most of us have no idea where data about us has landed up, who controls it, protects it and what it sells for. It’s a rather strange turn of events that we have become so disconnected from information that is so personal to us.
Research compiled by BBC, Ofcom, Nomido, Pro Privacy and academics (to name a few) all point to the same insights; most internet users are not aware of who is collecting and processing their data and indeed, what data is being collected and processed. The knowledge that “third parties” are processing personal data leaves many feeling uncomfortable but forced to resign to the reality that no alternative options exist and therefore, little choice remains other than to click ‘agree’ to the terms and conditions that are too long and too complex to read. This leaves many feeling trapped in an ecosystem that they know isn’t entirely safe however they’re too overwhelmed and unarmed with solutions to do anything about it. There’s another angle to this challenge. Not only is the current data ecosystem difficult to navigate, it is difficult to govern too because many of the systems and activities are located in privately-held data silos.
The responsible use and implementation of personal data stores (PDS) or data pods could help to change this. Pods, with their design centred around the values of transparency, control and security, function as a kind of bank account for personal data. You can decide who you wish to share data with, for how long and when you would like to revoke access. This technology has the potential to disrupt the data ecosystem by reimagining data relations across society and allowing individuals to more easily actualise their data rights as afforded to them by GDPR. Up till now, rights relating to data portability and restricting processing have been difficult for an individual to take action on. Pods also offer a novel way for organisations to share data with one another by easing the difficulties usually associated with technical interoperability and trust. It’s worth noting that pods will not offer policy professionals any hoped-for miracles in the creation of data sharing agreements. These require a different kind of creative thinking to improve the overall process; and many start-ups are seeking to work in this space.
While the use of pods at scale is still in beta, experiments across BBC R&D, government of Flanders and NHS, to name a few, look positive. There is more work to do to ensure pods are public-ready like ensuring they meet accessibility requirements, establishing design patterns and designing guidance so that the public can learn the necessary skills needed to manage and govern their own data. Indeed the changing awareness of how the data landscape is governed and the data relationships between government, private sector and the public are likely to have profound effects upon the way in which we construct many
This blog was written by Lisa Talia Moretti Digital Sociologist (User Research Principal) at AND Digital. For more than a decade, Lisa has researched and written about the relationship between technology, information and society for a diverse range of organisations across public, private and third sector. Lisa is an Associate Lecturer at Cardiff University and a Research Fellow at The Governance Lab. In 2020, Lisa was named one of Britain’s 100 people who are shaping the British digital industry in the category Champion for Change. She is the Co-Chair of the AI Council for the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA). Her TEDx talk, Technology is not a product, it's a system, is available for viewing on TED.com and YouTube. Learn more about Lisa, by connecting with her via Twitter or LinkedIn.
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