Let me just reiterate through a thought we all might have. How does Facebook or Instagram know what I want? Why am I ending up shopping more than I planned on Amazon? We live in a world of big data. It is essentially a field that makes sense of a large volume of user data. Irrespective of its large benefits, at times it somehow makes me feel like a puppet. Here are a few instances around this topic.
Convenience is the commodity that matters to our generation the most. We shifted from using television broadcasting service to using Netflix for entertainment. Netflix currently boasts 158 million subscribers. The number of Netflix subscribers is increasing by million every year because Netflix gives us the content of choice by providing an on-demand video streaming service. Such on-demand video streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon prime use big data technologies to know what the users want and directly promote that content to them based on their individual preferences. The suggestions or recommendations provided by Netflix enable the users to click and engage with other content quickly. By doing so, what I feel is, such platforms restrict users to explore new content by providing continuous recommendations based on their past choices. I feel like, I have a big bag of candies with a net in the middle separating the bag into two parts. There are candies which I like above the net and other candies which I haven't yet eaten, below the net. I wish to take out the new candies from below the net and explore their taste but I am not able to because of the net. I try a little but then I end up eating the candies which are above the net, which I do like and don't need to make an effort to eat them.
Big data can also be used to find the mindset of society and develop marketing strategies accordingly. Nudge is a concept in behavioral science, political theory, and behavioral economics that proposes positive reinforcement and indirect suggestions as ways to influence the behavior and decision making of groups or individuals. "Nudge Theory". The nudge theory was applied for good causes but later the companies started using this for their profit. A simple example of nudge theory being applied for profit could be 'Meal' offered at McDonald’s. This is an effective tactic to increase sales. The customer who has hunger for one burger goes for a meal just because it gives a variety of food. The algorithms are now able to know what we think before we do and will figure out how to nudge us in particular ways, without being aware that we are being directed to reach certain conclusions and to carry out certain behaviors. We will be unfree but have no awareness of that fact.
Politicians and governments use big data analysis to know the citizen's psychology and then use nudging theory to imply their decisions without making the public feel that it is a dubious tactic. The government has coercive power. When the government applies such kind of nudging techniques, it is more dangerous. Let's take the example of China's Social Credit System (abbreviated as SCS). This system assesses citizens and businesses based on their economic and social reputation. The system does this by using CCTV surveillance and big data analysis. The SCS for citizens is called a Sesame credit system. Individuals are given score i.e. credit ratings based on their behavior. As of November 2019, in addition to dishonest and fraudulent financial behavior, other behavior that some cities have officially listed as negative factors of credit ratings includes playing loud music or eating in rapid transits, violating traffic rules such as jaywalking and red-light violations, making reservations at hotels or restaurants but not showing up, failing to correctly sort personal waste, fraudulently using other people's public transportation ID cards, etc., on the other hand, behavior listed as positive factors of credit ratings includes donating blood, donating to charity, volunteering for community services, and so on. "Social Credit System", . At the business level the SCS impacts even more. It gives a lower rating to the companies whose policies conflict with the vision of the government. The SCS thus can be termed as 'economic strategy' of the government to make businesses aligned to the government's stringent rules.
A survey of Chinese citizens (heard about this survey on YouTube) was carried out to find out how they feel about this credit system. According to the survey, the citizens gave positive reviews about the system. This is a mere example of the dominance and the negative nudging effect that has changed the mentality of people to support this. The social credit system of china is nothing, but a ruling system based on big data. The citizens say that the government is making people do good work by giving credit ratings in return. But in doing so, the genuine interest of doing good deeds is lost. Now they happen to do the community work just to gain the credit ratings. The scores given by SCS to a person is also dependent on the scores of his or her friend. If the friend has a low score, the person's score is also reduced. The dating apps also showcase the credit scores, so that an individual can find a match by reviewing credit scores. All of this restricts people to make friends or select partners on the basis of their choice. It creates a sense of justice among people and makes them less genuine in their thoughts.
Big data impacts consumers' power, big data is the massive collection and use of data about consumer activities such as "personal communications, online behavior, shopping, banking, and public transportation" which, taken together, result in the permanent observation of consumers. That way, big data gives data controllers "the power to influence consumer behavior through dynamic or discriminatory pricing, filter bubbles or subtly influencing individual decisions (nudging)". Also, many times the data used to develop algorithms for decision making is not accurate. It does not contain much diverse information or has information from limited sources. Thus, making all decisions based on data analysis is not right. It might hurt many genuine people. The applications developed using big data technologies use the 'user data' to engage and restrict the users. It takes away users' freedom to make decisions and explore themselves. The use of big data is taking away the liberty of people and making them less humane and thoughtful in their day to day acts.
How much decision-making power should be given to machines? The technologies become smarter day by day but will they ever have that emotional quotient which we have?