How people feel about what companies do with their data is just as important as what they know about it

It’s been an exciting week for those of us interested in what companies do with people’s data. The revelation that Cambridge Analytica got its hands on 50 million people’s Facebook data and that Facebook, at least until 2015, made this possible, enabling apps to access not only user data but also that of their friends, has thrown issues that some of us have been researching, teaching, and talking about for a number of years into the public eye.

A media storm has erupted in the past few days which has seen widespread speculation about who we should blame. Should users know what they are signing up to and sharing? In other words, should they know better? …

There have been a few surveys on public attitudes, but they overwhelmingly focus on views about single issues, like privacy or surveillance. If we are to truly understand the current data phenomenon, what we need instead, in my view, is much more qualitative understanding of how different people experience, negotiate, trust, distrust, or resist big data and data mining. CONT.

Helen Kennedy (U. of Sheffield), LSE Impact of Social Sciences