Friday, February 21, 2020

Let’s Keep Them Accountable


What do tech companies mean when they say their data usage is transparent? Matteo Turilli and Luciano Floridi, in their paper “The ethics of information transparency,” talk about transparency being information visibility, including the ability to see intentions.

In 2018, accusations came out against Facebook claiming the social media giant was sharing user data without clear consent. Several of the largest tech companies in the world, such as Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft, had been granted access to private user data without the user knowing about it.

Facebook maintained that there was no breach in privacy, claiming all data shared was given with consent. If this was true, though, then it wouldn’t have come as a surprise to everyone who read about it. Facebook claimed to be transparent with their data usage, and that might be true by their definition. But if their consent forms are hidden in terms and conditions or in language that the average person cannot understand, then that shouldn’t be considered transparency at all. It’s also worth questioning what their intentions for user data were, given Turilli’s and Floridi’s definition of transparency.

Image result for facebook selling dataAccording to Turilli and Floridi, there’s a difference between data and semantic information. They say semantic information is the effect of crunching data to create something meaningful that can be used effectively. It’s this semantic information that we’re worried about. When Facebook gave other companies access to user data, those companies crunched the data to produce meaningful information they could use for their benefit. Netflix, who was given access to friends of users, used the data in their recommendation algorithms. Although this is a light example of data usage, it’s easy to imagine how this data shared by Facebook could result in information that we don’t want others to know.

Facebook should be held accountable by forcing them into transparency. Specifics, such as names, should remain private, but they should have to reveal what data they are collecting and what they intend to do with it.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Brady,
    I think this is a great improvement over your original blog post and an interesting topic as well. As more and more data gets collected from users online, companies' transparency becomes more important so users can remain informed about what data they are giving away and how it is being used. I liked how you incorporated the reading very well and went into detail about how Turilli and Floridi's philosophies play into transparency. I feel like you could have possibly gone more in depth about how Facebook should be held accountable for the data they allow other companies to access, or explain scandals such as Cambridge Analytica.

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  2. Hi Brady! I really enjoyed reading your blog post and seeing the improvement. I thought that you did a great job in incorporating concepts from the readings with Facebook's transparency. Some things I would suggest would to maybe include other definitions of the word "transparency", and to also not just make a simple claim at the end. I agree with David (commenter above) and believe that you should explain more about Facebook's accountability. Talk about why there is an issue in having different ideas of the word transparent.

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