Are Data Rights human rights?
Data has become a big part of our daily lives. Every tap and interaction with technology, from liking a Facebook post to making a google search adds to the limitless stored information generated about us. The question I ask is that are data rights human rights?
Digital technologies and social media platforms, blur a whole process through which judgements are made about our lives that have an profound effect on our freedom, our agency, how we understand our place in society! But overall, they impact greatly on our human rights! This can be a combination of positive rights such as freedom of speech and negative rights such as freedom from harassment and intrusion of privacy.
Over the years, digital technologies have risen to great prominence and have become a critical determinant of our social, political, and economic lives. The loss of data can not only have a devastating effect on an individual, but it also has an impact on democracy. Technological tools of data theft, data harvesting, profiling and targeted communication have become the greatest threat to democracy and human rights in contemporary times.
One of the biggest factors that has caused issues with data rights and digital footprints is social media. In the past 10 years, online social networking platforms have expanded exponentially. With millions of users, these social media apps and sites contain massive amounts of personal information with the database easily available to other users, corporate and government agencies. Data theft for various purposes has witnessed an unprecedented rise since the advent of social media.
Despite the widespread impact of social media, the intersection between the privacy of personal data and the platform’s impact remains frequently misunderstood. Platforms like Facebook harness the extraordinary power of detailed personal profiles to gauge what content they think will be enticing for a particular user and calibrate the user’s feed accordingly so the platform can maximize the amount of time that user stays online.
Rapid social and technological developments in the use of data mean that there is limited knowledge of – or transparency around – the ‘behind the scenes’ data processing techniques (including algorithms, analysis, data matching and profiling) being used by organisations and businesses to micro-target individuals. What is clear is that these tools can have a significant impact on people’s privacy. It is important that there is greater and genuine transparency about the use of such techniques to ensure that people have control over their own data and that the law is upheld. When the purpose for using these techniques is related to the democratic process, the case for high standards of transparency is very strong.
Us as citizens, are hardly aware of the dangers online. Organisations such as Human Rights Watch, and Open Rights are privacy watchdogs and aim to educate and safeguard the public against the exploitation of data rights. In October 2020 we had a rare chance to make data protection law serve everyone better. The Department of Digital, Culture, Media & Sports (DCMS) held public call on the powers for NGOs to independently bring forward complaints about data protection breaches and your voice can make all the difference. Hundreds of ORG members and supporters spoke out for better data protection law by responding to the call for views. The consultation concluded on 22 October 2020, and we are now awaiting the Government’s response.
A new era is upon us, in which the data of masses have made a few firms massively rich. The masses need to think harder about what that means for them.
