Manipulation, Real-time Profiling, and their Wrongs

"Manipulation, Real-time Profiling, and their Wrongs". In: The Philosophy of Online Manipulation. Michael Klenk & Fleur Jongepier (eds). Routledge, (Forthcoming)

19 Pages Posted: 29 Nov 2021

See all articles by Lucas Miotto

Lucas Miotto

University of Maastricht

Jiahong Chen

University of Sheffield, School of Law; University of Nottingham

Date Written: September 01, 2021

Abstract

Technology scholars and journalists have recently called attention to digital platforms’ and devices’ ability to influence users based on their present moods, stress level, hunger, and other transient features. For them, such influence based on users’ present status – what the chapter calls “real-time profiling” – is not only a clear form of wrongful manipulation, but also online manipulation’s future. The chapter aims to explain what makes real-time profiling wrong (when wrong) and discusses problems associated with its regulation. After explaining what real-time profiling consists in and showing that it can be presumed to be a form of manipulation, the chapter argues that real-time profiling is wrong both because the profiler psychologically hijacks profiled subjects and because it works as a gateway to further wrongs. Towards the end, the chapter discusses some implications of the proposed account for the legal regulation of online manipulative technologies like real-time profiling. It is argued that existing legal frameworks are not fine-grained enough to deal with the wrongs associated with real-time profiling and related forms of online manipulation.

Keywords: Manipulation, Digital Ethics, Profiling, Data Protection Law, Consumer Law, AI Regulation

Suggested Citation

Miotto, Lucas and Chen, Jiahong, Manipulation, Real-time Profiling, and their Wrongs (September 01, 2021). "Manipulation, Real-time Profiling, and their Wrongs". In: The Philosophy of Online Manipulation. Michael Klenk & Fleur Jongepier (eds). Routledge, (Forthcoming), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3968999 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3968999

Lucas Miotto (Contact Author)

University of Maastricht ( email )

P.O. Box 616
Maastricht, 6200
Netherlands

Jiahong Chen

University of Sheffield, School of Law ( email )

Bartolomé House
Winter St
Sheffield, S3 7ND
United Kingdom

University of Nottingham ( email )

United Kingdom

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