The ethical use of our Data

Every time we use a connected device, be it our mobile, laptop or wearable, we generate data and everyday we own more devices and we are more and more users in the world, so the supply of data grows exponentially.

This multiplicative growth in data supply generates a dilemma that only thickens with time. On the one hand, data is the raw material that enables digital transformation and business growth through precision marketing and better customer experience, but on the other hand, we face serious challenges in the ethics of collection and treatment of our data.

These challenges have been duly covered by Shoshana Zuboff in her magnum opus "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" where she describes how large platforms have industrialized the conversion of our "digital exhaust" into "behavioral surplus", monetizing our behaviors in the first place, but also ultimately steering them, thus creating a dangerous asymmetry of power in society without much option to reverse.

Several series on Netflix have also shown us these dystopian tales in a not too distant future, and we have also witnessed events in very much real life, such as the massive attempts to manipulate public opinion in matters of politics.

Yet tech giants are inherently neither good nor bad. It is their circumstances that dictaminate their acting and the system can and should improve through the dissemination of knowledge, debate and active legislation that is diligently implemented.

Already in the eighties Microsoft had to deal with more antitrust cases in the space of 2 years than in the entire software industry in its history and now it is the turn for the large platforms. 

However, we all know that regulation and its legal implementation is always slower than technological development and this gap is only increasing, so the "nudging" towards a more ethical behavior must be by all means multilateral.

Regulation is key, but a fundamentally differentiating aspect of our times when it comes to data, is that the most valuable data is the data that we as consumers generate - not machines - when we interact with the digital world. So in fact people hold an unparalleled degree of power that did not exist in previous industrial revolutions.

If we have become the "the product" and we facilitate no product, there is no business case and possible bad intentions deflate as a result.

Our fundamental right to privacy as citizens makes us de facto the owners of the data we generate, which we can, similarly to image rights, assign to third parties for processing through our free and informed consent, for free or in exchange for real value.

We also have the right to withdraw our consent, request the deletion of our data or simply to “become forgotten”. The latter is difficult in practice since we would as users become deprived of the free services we have become accustomed to and dependant on. However, any relationship that is not based on a sound value exchange will wear out in time until it is finally broken.

In fact, speaking of more equitable exchanges in our current economic system, the emergence of business purpose as the new north star for value creation is not the result of a fad among CEOs, but of a real concern of the boards to keep their brands relevant in the minds of new consumers who will not hesitate to change vendors if there is no fair exchange and especially if trust is broken.

As a result of the GDPR, one of the industries that has advanced the most in the interpretation and definition of best practices regarding data privacy is advertising, where the IAB has launched and has been improving a framework for stakeholder action (Transparency & Consent Framework) seeking to uphold the fundamentals of the regulation. This is clearly visible in the evolution of cookie policies, where focus is now placed on clearly explaining what data is to be collected, by whom and for what use.

Much has been written about the current shortcomings of such cookie notices and the "dark patterns in consent" that they generate and as users we can agree that although it is not a perfect system, it is a movement in the right direction.

The big players have also been mobilizing in the wake of regulation and increased public awareness, with Apple introducing much more obvious privacy notices starting with IOS14, but the main movement is yet to come for the advertising sector with the elimination of the option of implantation of 3rd party cookies in Chrome as the main web browser in the world.

Google′s alternative for supplying the industry with relevant ad  personalization at scale has yet to be explored. From Google they explain that their FLoC system, based on the construction of cohorts of similar user profiles, will be as effective as cookies, but it remains to be seen.

The death of the 3rd party cookie does not imply the death of the cookie in general. Although cookies were not developed for advertising purposes, they will continue to be used in advertising for some time, even if we move towards the use of IDs (universal or by associations) on non-Google ad platforms to get our message across, as these IDs will to larger extent be built from 1st party cookies using hashed emails as validators.

We are thus moving towards a regulated system, more limited in collection and supply, with best practices in activation, but predictably without a global gold standard, which means maintained complexity, possibly reduced advertising efficiency and therefore hindered growth.

The difficulty in defining a standard lies in Zuboff's 3 key questions in relation to data: “Who knows? Who decides? And who decides who decides? " particularly when we live in a globalized, interconnected and interdependent world. And when it comes to control and power; Should this power be in the hands of platforms, national governments or a supranational power? The fight has already started.

Surely as ordinary citizens we do not like the idea of delegating control of our data to a supranational power, but as citizens; Can we trust governments that by constitution will be short-lived?

I personally believe that responsible companies with a well-defined purpose, subject to governance audits, have an important role to play here in conjunction with consumers themselves - today with greater access to information and more empowered by technology. This pairing will be more stable and predictable than the political agendas of the governments in power or global geopolitical interests.

Activating companies in this role is relatively easy since for them it is a question of competitiveness and survival for the reasons I previously described, whilst activating consumers is more complex since they are largely disconnected from the reality of managing their own data and today this topic is far from their daily worries.

How then do we sustainably include consumers in the equation? The key is to seek their participation. Drucker already told us that "without involvement there is no commitment" and to get involved you have to make them participate.

Already in the summer of 2018 we conducted a survey of 1,961 people in Spain where we asked them to what extent they were interested in sharing their data for an economic value below € 100 per year.

More than 26% of respondents were "interested" or "very interested" in getting something in exchange for the use of their data of course with a greater openness to it on the part of Gen Z, but across all major age groups.

At Tribaldata, we have concluded that the contribution of real value to consumers mobilizes them to share their data in Spain and beyond our borders, but if the value is more emotional than purely economic in nature, it mobilizes them far more sustainably. We already have more than 10,000 panelists in Spain who, in exchange for planting trees to combat climate change, share an advertising profile that they generate and control. Through this we have already planted more than 19,000 trees and growing, through the simple us of our App.

Beyond the value exchanged, the basis of the relationship must be based on transparency, integrity and strict and clearly communicated rules. We have integrated this under “privacy-by-design” principles into our service, but we have also opted for the generation of a declaration of principles, based on the criteria of “A New Contract for the Web” by Sir Tim Berners-Lee and those of the Mydata.org association, principles that are published on our website and that serve as a compass for our technological development.

This is the fruit of many global think-tanks that have thought long and hard about the processing of our data, which we have synthesized in 4 rules:

• A solution thought out by and for people
• Allowing them to become main actors
• Forging a fairer and more sustainable environment for all participants
• Where union makes strength

The clarity of the message on the use of data is absolutely key for generating trust and more and more companies are generating similar principles that even start to become part of their corporate statutes.

These principles are also moving from plain written form to the environment of coding in algorithms directing the business rules of many companies where ensuring their good governance will be absolutely vital moving forward.

The customs and norms, codified or to be codified, that we as entrepreneurs and consumers implement, outside of the regular framework, will be the best recipe for an ethical use of our data.

It is up to us, as people and as entrepreneurs, to forge a better future for ourselves and for our future generations to come.