Smart Technologies and Our Sense of Self: Going Beyond Epistemic Counter-Profiling

Life and the Law in the Era of Data-Driven Agency, Mireille Hildebrandt & Kieron O'Hara (eds.), 2020, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.

19 Pages Posted: 5 Jun 2019 Last revised: 29 Oct 2019

See all articles by Sylvie Delacroix

Sylvie Delacroix

King's College London; The Alan Turing Institute

Michael Veale

University College London, Faculty of Laws

Date Written: April 16, 2019

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the extent to which sophisticated profiling techniques may end up undermining, rather than enhancing, our capacity for ethical agency. This capacity demands both opacity respect — preserving a gap between the self we present and the self we conceal — and an ability to call into question practices that are ethically wanting. Pushed to its limit, the smooth optimisation of our environment may prevent us from experiencing many of the tensions that otherwise prompt us to reconsider accepted practices. An optimally personalised world may not ever call for any ‘action’ as Hannah Arendt describes it.

Can systems be designed to personalise responsibly? Greater time and research needs to be invested in designing a range of viable ‘perspective widening’ tools, as many such tools either burden users with little guarantee of meaningful engagement, or underestimate the extent to which individuals’ preferences are themselves malleable. Any approach that tries to predict what users might like, or what might change their views, risks the same pitfalls as any other form of personalisation. Instead, we argue that the most promising avenue is to push for diverse uses of newly developed systems, and measure those systems’ success at least partly on that basis. Inviting appropriation and repurposing would help keep users engaged in systems of data collection and profiling. This will not be a straightforward task: sometimes it will be in tension with traditional measures of success and performance. Yet the increasing integration of algorithmic systems in society requires us to widen our understanding of agency beyond a narrow, decontextualised focus on passive consumption preferences.

Keywords: counter-profiling, personalisation, ethical agency, Hannah Arendt, serendipity, optimisation

Suggested Citation

Delacroix, Sylvie and Veale, Michael, Smart Technologies and Our Sense of Self: Going Beyond Epistemic Counter-Profiling (April 16, 2019). Life and the Law in the Era of Data-Driven Agency, Mireille Hildebrandt & Kieron O'Hara (eds.), 2020, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3372128

Sylvie Delacroix (Contact Author)

King's College London ( email )

London
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://https://delacroix.uk

The Alan Turing Institute ( email )

96 Euston Road
London, NW1 2DB
United Kingdom

Michael Veale

University College London, Faculty of Laws ( email )

Bentham House
4-8 Endsleigh Gardens
London, WC1E OEG
United Kingdom

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
165
Abstract Views
1,409
Rank
325,734
PlumX Metrics