Contents
How important our personal data is to the state and large corporations, they said in the new episode of the Trends podcast “What has changed?”
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Conversation timeline:
2:09 — How data capitalism differs from surveillance capitalism
8:35 — How does the economy change under data capitalism?
12:25 – Can companies collect our data without violating personal boundaries?
16:42 — How our emotions can sell
20:42 — Is it possible to monopolize information
23:11 – Is privacy possible today?
25:05 — Personal data protection in the future
Participants of the discussion:
- Ivan Begtin is the director of ANO Information Culture.
- Alexander Volchek is an entrepreneur, CEO of GeekBrains.
- Sergey Romantsev is a podcast host and tech blogger.
Highlights from the release
On Surveillance Capitalism and Data Leakage
What are the differences between surveillance capitalism and data capitalism? Ivan Begtin, director of the ANO Information Culture, said that surveillance capitalism is a system of mass surveillance that is based on data. Such capitalism continuously monitors economically active contractors – people. Data capitalism, on the other hand, is a system in which companies collect all sorts of information, and then present the final structured products based on this data.
The guests of the episode emphasized that data leaks happen all the time and it is impossible to insure against them 100%. Particularly dangerous are leaks that appear on the Web in a form understandable to users: it is the ease of reading information that makes companies vulnerable and creates a negative impression on the public. To prevent data leaks, corporations need to allocate more money for security. Such security includes comprehensive measures: technical audit, insurance, as well as the creation of special funds to compensate victims of leaks.
If a person wants to protect himself from surveillance, then there are several options. The first is self-regulation. Today, when someone does not want to disclose their data, they can refuse the Internet, phone and other devices that read information. The second option is to talk about information security and promote those politicians who are ready to fight for tougher laws on personal data. Ivan Begtin noted that unicorn startups appear much less frequently in data-regulated European countries than in the US, where data laws are not as strict.
About online learning and personal boundaries
According to Alexander Volchek, CEO of GeekBrains, in ten years the world will have a formed market where online and offline learning will coexist. This format will enable people from small towns to gain access to knowledge that was previously inaccessible to them. But for an equal distribution of knowledge among the population, several years must pass. Now people in practice should make sure that online education makes life better. Here, factors such as the demand for such professionals in the market and the positive experience of people from their environment are important.
When discussing targeted advertising and collecting information, the opinions of experts were divided. Volchek said that artificial intelligence today is not capable of offering us the most relevant goods and services.
Alexander Volchek: “Today, normal systems that can correctly offer personalized advertising to millions of users simply do not exist. Personalized advertising, if you look at it closely from a technological point of view, is a very simple tool. And we see how they stop working. Just because your phone collects information does not mean that the phone has the ability to properly parse all your information and recommend something. True artificial intelligence does not exist today.”
Ivan Begtin said that people process the data, which is why the recommender systems of large IT companies still work: “Data is collected and processed, but researchers are doing it. The development of artificial intelligence today is due to the interest of corporations that want to make money on it. In corporations, when processing big data, they operate with anonymized information. There are various parameters (whether a person is prone to unplanned purchases, how old is he, and so on), but there are no first and last names. This data allows you to create targeted offers and advertising for a very narrow circle of people.”
In the podcast, panellists also noted that access to data is a strong competitive advantage. However, getting information is not enough. You need to be able to properly process and analyze it. Without relying on external factors, the information may be useless.