Although the digital revolution has unleashed a vast array of new opportunities for economic, social and political exchange, there is a misalignment of interests between the users and many suppliers of digital services. Building on unprecedented network effects, and consequent rewards to first movers (especially those who offer “free” services to maximise market penetration), many digital service providers have pursued a business model built on massive user surveillance and data aggregation. The largely surreptitious collection of vast amounts of information has fuelled a huge market between data aggregators and entities seeking to influence their users. But the billions of individuals whose data is collected are not part of this market, rather they are induced into a state of digital husbandry through the offer of “free” services.
The misalignment between the digital consumers and the digital third-party funders is responsible for a wide variety of malfunctions, which ultimately threaten the continued functioning of our economic market systems; expose consumers, businesses and governments to widespread cybersecurity threats; expose users to far-ranging manipulation of attention, thought, feeling and behaviour; erode appreciation for objective notions of truth, undermine our democratic processes; weaken mental health; threaten fundamental human rights and degrade the cohesion of our societies. It also furthers international economic and social divides.
These concerns have been broadly recognized for some years, and governments have sought to respond to protect their citizens mostly by evolving privacy rights through a consumer protection prism. But in taking a consumer protection approach, governments have failed to introduce market forces to the relationship between the individuals and the other two participants – digital service providers and the third-party influencers/funders. Further, the application of a “one size fits all” definition of personal data has failed both to keep up with how data collection has expanded and changed though technological change, and also to avoid unexpected consequences on the implementation of common goods aspects of the Internet’s operation.
This project explores how digital consumers can be given control, access, and on what terms, to their data. The resulting governance system provides incentives throughout the value chain for economic resources to be allocated in their most productive uses in satisfying the consumers’ needs. Similarly promoting such control gives individuals the ability to express social and political views and choices free from a non-transparent environment of implicit manipulation. This is the basis for true “digital citizenship,” in two senses: first, empowering digital users to shape their digital networks in accordance with their own objectives and, second, enabling the economic markets to work in an effective and humane way in meeting the digital users’ objectives at minimum resource cost.
Within this framework, governments can (i) establish effective and accountable Data Commons, (ii) provide effective rights of association and representation for digital consumers to ensure that skilled professionals can advise groups of citizens and negotiate on their behalf, (iii) provide effective oversight of data agents to check their competence and trustworthiness and (iv) protect the rights of vulnerable digital citizens.