Data Sharing is Caring

That’s not all. This ever-growing mountain of information about you and every other individual is being continuously analyzed. Programmers working for the internet giants are developing increas­ingly intelligent algo­rithms that use this data to generate increas­ingly accurate digital profiles about us, among other things. According to a study by the Washington Post, Facebook’s algo­rithm can, based on your brows­ing habits, determine 98 traits about you, including your level of education, how much your house is worth, what year you bought your car, what your favorite TV programs are, whether you have an outstanding balance on your credit card, and so much more. During his time as a researcher at the University of Cambridge, Michal Kosinski, now a professor at Stanford University, developed an algo­rithm that can help create an accurate personality profile about you based solely on your Facebook data. Are you more conser­vative or liberal? More impulsive and spontaneous or organized and hard-working? More placid or extro­verted, more competitive or a team player? The more you click that “Like” button, the better the algo­rithm knows you. 70 likes and up, it can judge you better than a friend, 150+ better than your parents, and 300+ better than your own partner. In any case, that’s the conclusion reached by Kosinski, who compared the algo­rithm’s results with the results of personality tests based on question­naires filled out by the relevant test persons.

But let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. Where’s the good news? How much is a data miner’s work worth? Nobody actually tells you that, of course. Yet if we weren’t already aware, when­ever a techno­logy behemoth is sold or valued on the stock exchange or when­ever incidents akin to what hap­pened at Cambridge Analytica come to light, we know other people are making billions with our data. When Instagram was taken over, for example, the price was 20 dollars per user, 55 dollars for WhatsApp, and a staggering 200 dollars in the case of Skype. The internet giants are now earning billions with our data by helping companies place persona­lized ads and sell products on a massive scale. This works because smart algo­rithms know for a fact that today Mia from Munich is on the hunt for a very particular pair of shoes and Michael from Michigan for a bigger vehicle, as there’s a new addition to the family and his current car is already six years old. The algo­rithm also knows how much Michael is willing to pay and what make of car is best suited to his personality profile.

Yet the true power of our data only becomes clear when we look to the future. Let’s imagine two politicians are in the midst of an election cam­paign. Only one of them is using algo­rithms. Thanks to the immense amount of knowledge about every single voter and the oppor­tunity to win them over with information specific to them, this politician has a crucial advantage over her opponent. If she wins, which is inevitable, this politician will also let her algo­rithm decide what matters to focus on and what arguments to put forward in the future. She will leave it up to the algo­rithm to decide what strategy she, or should we say the algo­rithm, will pursue. After all, this algo­rithm is able to rapidly analyze a practically bot­tom­less sea of data and thus make far better decisions than the politician or her entire campaign team ever could.

And wouldn’t it be great if, thanks to biometric sensors implanted in your body, algo­rithms told you exactly how much omega 3 and vitamin B12 you should consume on a particular day for your brain to work to opti­mum capacity and for you to be more pro­duc­tive? Wouldn’t it be amazing if they also suggested your new favorite recipes and ordered and pre­pared the necessary products for you?

What it would be like if we could use the resource data to do good for all

But we could do so much good in the world with all this collected data! We could protect the environment, for example. How amazing would it be if cities could use freely accessible, anonymized mobility data from, say, car sharing companies or navi­gation apps to ensure buses and trams arrived on time and only when needed. To what extent would the level of traffic and CO₂ emissions go down?

How great would it be if all the data on health and vital signs collected by millions of owners of smart­watches, digi­tal scales, fitness trackers, and health apps such as sleep apps across the globe was made available to health­care researchers in an anony­mized format. They would then be better able to recognize patterns that cause illnesses and identify useful measures to nip diseases in the bud. They would need less time to deter­mine which forms of treat­ment would be most effective for which patient and could stop people from getting sick in the first place. The corona crisis also shows just how useful such data can be, with Deutsche Telekom pro­vid­ing access to anony­mized mass data from its mobile communi­cations network to the Robert Koch Institute so that researchers can better predict the spread of the virus. What’s more, over four million people have played the online game “Sea Hero Quest” and collected data for dementia research. How great would it be if, instead of a handful of people guarding masses of data like a precious treasure to further enhance their already huge advantage and monopoly position, each and every one of us had access to the data we all generate in an anony­mized format. What if we could all have a say in how algo­rithms are designed so we could use them for the benefit of society and to protect the environ­ment rather than to achieve economic goals and gain greater power?