Big data and the sharing economy

Big Data and the Sharing Economy

Ethical Considerations and a Buddhist Perspective

Soraj Hongladarom

Department of Philosophy and Center for Ethics of Science and Technology,Chulalongkorn University

Visiting Research Scholar,Indiana University

Outline

▪ Sharing Economy

▪ Big Data

▪ How Are The Two Connected?

▪ Ethical Considerations

▪ Technology and Ethics (Martin & Freeman, 2004)

▪ Transparency as a Political Tool (Flyverbom, 2015)

▪ The Black Box Society (Pasquale, 2015)

▪ Social and Legal Implications

▪ What is happening in China (Management of reputations – Botsman article in Wired)

▪ Buddhist Viewpoint

▪ Management of identity and reputations

▪ Conclusion

Sharing Economy

▪ Extensive use of information technology – mobile app, social media

▪ ‘Peer-to-peer’ ideology

▪ Direct contact between buyer and seller, but through intermediary

▪ How this is different from the older form of posting on bulletin boards.

▪ Use of ‘reputation system’ – online reviews, background search

▪ Uber, Airbnb, etc.

▪ Undercutting of the established businesses – ordinary people becoming business owner

▪ Problem of regulation

Big Data

▪ Using social media, we generate a huge amount of data every second.

▪ These data can be analyzed to see many kinds of trends in very different areas.

▪ Wikipedia - Big data is a term for data sets that are so large or complex that traditional data processing application software is inadequate to deal with them.

▪ “A flood of data is created every day by the interactions of billions of people using computers, GPS devices, cell phones, and medical devices. Many of these interactions occur through the use of mobile devices being used by people in the developing world, people whose needs and habits have been poorly understood until now. Researchers and policymakers are beginning to realise the potential for channelling these torrents of data into actionable information that can be used to identify needs, provide services, and predict and prevent crises for the benefit of low-income populations. Concerted action is needed by governments, development organisations, and companies to ensure that this data helps the individuals and communities who create it.” (World Economic Form 2012) http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_TC_MFS_BigDataBigImpact_Briefing_2012.pdf

How Are The Two Connected?

▪ The sharing economy actually needs big data.

▪ Management of information pertaining to individuals and segments of population. Matching buyers and sellers together through the intermediary.

▪ Credit histories, reputations, reviews

▪ Big data is best used for making predictions – people tend to do things repeatedly – we can predict what an individual is like to do next based on what they have done in the past – groups or segments of people are the same.

▪ The predictions are useful for the sharing economy.

▪ The Sharing Economy - What It Is, Examples, And How Big Data, Platforms And Algorithms Fuel It – Forbes.com

But there are problems…

Trust and Reputation

Management of Trust and Reputation

▪ Big data can help.

▪ Personal data showing how trustworthy an individual is.

▪ Trust without the authorities – personal relations, personal histories

▪ But the authorities can help through legal means and regulations.

▪ Authorities can help redress those who would have been considered less desirable, or discriminated against.

▪ Regulation of the operation of the providers, behavior of the consumers and operation of the intermediary.

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/chinese-government-social-credit-score-privacy-invasion

What I Would Like to Argue

▪ Online reputation is part of the online self (Hongladarom, 2016).

▪ The latter is an extension of one’s own traditional self – Clark and Chalmers’ extended mind thesis

▪ Buddhist analysis of the self – externalism – instead of constituted through internal elements, the self is constituted and recognized as such by externalfactors.

▪ Ethical considerations – what happens when an extension of one’s own self (one’s personal data) is analyzed and manipulated by unknown algorithms is that we lose control of our data and the balance of power between individual and the corporation (as well as the state) is tilting toward the latter. This does not bode well for democracy.

What I Would Like to Argue

▪ So instead of letting ourselves by evaluated as to our online reputations, we should also evaluate these corporations and sharing platforms, assessing their reputations and sharing the information online.

▪ This requires an independent platform, but this must be provided by the political authorities.

▪ Virtual monopoly of Facebook – In the past the US did a very good thing by breaking up monopolies, so they should do the same with Facebook (which has in effect become the only platform for social interaction.

▪ The same goes for Uber, Airbnb and others large platforms.

▪ Most serious conflict – these platforms (based in the US) versus national governments and these platforms versus local businesses. A way needs to be found the two sides to work together, creating a win-win situation.

What I Would Like to Argue

▪ In Thailand and many other places the line between individuals sharing their homes and those who intend to operate a hotel business professionally is very thin.

▪ Uber advertises that ordinary people can share their cars with their friends, but in reality it’s the taxi drivers or the poorer people from the countryside hiring a car from a taxi company and get on Uber.

▪ Ethical concerns

Conceptual Tools

▪ Technology and ethics (Martin and Freeman, 2004)

▪ Transparency as an Ordering Tool (Flyverbom, 2015)

▪ The Black Box Society (Pasquale, 2015)

Ethical Considerations: Reputation and Big Data

▪ Reputation analysis can threaten the integrity of the self.

▪ It can be discriminatory and can invade an individual’s privacy.

▪ Collecting information of an individual gives undue power to the corporation.

▪ Potential conflict between the corporation and the political authority regarding control of personal information.

▪ Political authority can become a player in online reputation – Situation in China.

▪ Analytics of the population can become oppressive – tool of a totalitarian regime – Big Brother!

▪ The technology can be a hegemonic tool, giving too much power to corporations in relation to national governments and local businesses.

▪ Line between genuine sharing among peer and typical business between consumer and service provider – service provider tends to get on the bad end of the deal.

What Corporations Should Do…

▪ Be more open and transparent, especially as regards their own inner working and their algorithm

▪ Be more responsive to the needs for regulation in certain areas

▪ Ensure privacy of the users – privacy protection measure should be the default

▪ Be a more responsible stakeholder in society

▪ Take care of the drivers (in case of Uber)

▪ Make sure that it is a case of genuine sharing.

▪ Follow local legislation and regulations, but not when those local rules are oppressive.

▪ Google and Facebook know more about us than we do ourselves, so they need to be extra careful.

What Governments Should Do…

▪ Pass regulation legislation that serves the interest of all involved in a fair manner

▪ Sharing economy works on the basis of the belief that government involvement should be minimal. But though minimal their work is necessary

▪ Regulation of the internet as a whole – maintenance of the gateway – regulation of the radio wave

▪ How should the sellers (Airbnb hosts) and the platform (Airbnb itself) be taxed?

▪ Problem of taxing overseas corporations (Airbnb does not headquarter in Thailand)

▪ The guests themselves should also pay their taxes (value added tax).

▪ Act on behalf of the people and protect their rights and interests.

Proposal from a Buddhist Perspective

Proposals…

▪ Reputations are part of one’s own conception of the self

▪ Privacy is justified according its role in constituting the kind of society that we find desirable

▪ Profiling people needs to be done with the protection their rights dignity in mind.

▪ Negative profiling should be kept strictly confidential.

▪ And there has to be a floor (below which no one is allowed to go)

▪ Principle of interdependence of all things

▪ Ethical naturalism and pragmatism