Written by Fang, 2021 Cohort
I don’t know if it is true everywhere, but based on my own observation from where I come from, China, I personally believe that we, human beings, enjoy less freedom in this unprecedented big data era.
Admittedly, big data does provide lots of convenience for modern citizens such as applying for an ID card remotely, offering the chance for a more personalized education, assisting in better epidemic prevention and control, which might save time and effort for many citizens. Besides, big data has a strong predictive ability, which helps people to make decisions and reduce risks to a certain extent. However, the definition of freedom refers to the “power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint”. In this case, my viewpoint is that big data obviously brings more restraints. Is this really a true freedom?
First of all, in the advent of resource sharing, data security and privacy issues are inevitable. Unfortunately, we have already lost control of our personal information in the present age, because our personal data are often used by other people without permission. How many times have you received unknown phone calls for fraud or annoying commercial promotions? Has your QQ(an instant communication application) account been stolen? Have you ever been afraid of the network violence if your itinerary and personal information are posted on the Internet, after you are diagnosed with COVID-19? Big data is just a database, but it is not a reliable keeper of secrets.
Secondly, we tend to be more addicted to the Internet and even post too many things ourselves. Increasingly, mature recommendation algorithms are killing my free time more than ever. Think about shopping in Taobao App. I can hardly resist the urge to browse more goods even after the purchase, because Taobao has been recommending related products that I might like. Another similar case is Tik Tok. It is difficult for me to put down my phone in one hour if I begin to browse Tik Tok videos, due to its successful recommendation system. I am easily trapped in this information prison and spend less time doing what I should do. We are travelling “freely” in the big data ocean, but seldom realize that we have been deeply trapped in the data bay.
Thirdly, just like human beings, big data has moral defects. In 2016, a young university student named Wei Zexi died from a rare form of cancer after he had sought treatment from a hospital that came top of the list on his Baidu web search, which reignited public fury over Baidu’s advertising ethics. Additionally, it is not difficult to imagine the extreme working conditions of food delivery men from Meituan(a Chinese online-to-offline local life service platform) or Eleme(an online food delivery service platform), who have to violate the traffic rules and race with death because their delivery time are compressed by the unfair algorithms and systems. Just as Elon Musk warned, “With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon.” I believe this can be applied to big data technology. It is the value orientation of platforms or systems of big data that profoundly affects everyone’s freedom in this era.
Overall, people are losing the freedom they should have in many aspects, while they are reaping the benefits from this big data era. Big data is never perfect. It is just a tool. Big data can lead to big security and privacy problems, big mistakes, big moral dilemmas. It can take your freedom away while it pretends to meet your consumerist needs.