We are at a crossroads between what we typically call identity and digital identity. In fact, some claim that the crossroads are actually train tracks and our personal identity has already been run over by our digitized identity created by Facebook’s, Google’s, and Amazon’s prediction algorithms.
Regardless we still have time to pose the question: Do we want to retain (or regain) control over our digital identities?
This goes beyond what we think about privacy. The prediction algorithms are not taking your social security number per se; they are, however, taking your behaivor, your traits, your tendencies, your movements, your musings, your likes, your dislikes, who you listen to, who you associate with, your passions, your seethings, even your sleep patterns and driving habits. And not only are these algorithms mapping your behaviors; they are defining them. In a recent article, author and academic Shoshana Zuboff describes this as a migration from behavior monitoring to behavior actuation. “The idea is not only to know our behaviour but also to shape it in ways that can turn predictions into guarantees. It is no longer enough to automate information flows about us; the goal now is to automate us.” We are past traditional capitalism and into what she calls, “Survelliance Capitalism”.
Kinda makes the social security number a quaint concept.
As you might suspect, Zuboff decries Survelliance Capitalism and the loss of our ability to define and protect our own personal experiences. Her well written and thoroughly researched book, Survelliance Capitalism, reviews the extent to which that loss as already occurred and suggests that the only way to get it back is through regulation, similar to what was done to the robber barrons at the turn of the twentieth century.
As bleak as Zuboff makes Survelliance Capitalism out to be, there is a counterpoint: in post titled, “In praise of survelliance capitalism”, James Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute claims that most people are ok giving up privacy in return for free or inexpensive products and services. He goes on to state how Europe’s recently instituted privacy regulation, GDPR, is hampering innovation and ceding more marketing dollars to Google and Facebook while at the same time to most popular brands are by and far those that are winning in the Survelliance Capitalist game.
In both gravitas and breadth, Pethokoukis is no match for Zuboff; it’s not even a fair fight. But it is this very whimsy that Pethokoukis brings to this argument that underlies the challenges we have in having a cogent discussion that balances what I would call the sanctity of personal experience, with the promise technology has to enable me to realize my aspirations. I do think Big Tech has created a false choice between the two while at the same time I do not think the issue can easily be addressed simply with more regulation.
More on this in future posts, but technology should enable us to be ourselves and that means enabling us to choose those selves we share and those keep private.
