{ "docId": "019dd923-5e88-73ef-bd59-dddef82be3b0", "docSlug": "b5722f8c12c21bf3", "documentTitle": "The importance of being human in a digital world", "authorId": "Deloitte", "authorName": "Cambridge University Press", "documentKindSlug": "consulting-deck", "documentKindLabel": "Consulting deck", "sourceTypeSlug": "strategy_consulting", "sourceTypeLabel": "Strategy consulting", "presentationDate": null, "orientation": "portrait", "aspectRatio": 0.667, "pageNumber": 168, "pageCount": 224, "prevPage": 167, "nextPage": 169, "slideType": "other", "function": "summarize", "density": "dense", "nDataPoints": 0, "notes": "This is a page from an academic text, likely a book chapter.", "elementsJson": [ "paragraph" ], "metadataConfidence": 0.9, "imagePath": null, "slideHref": "/slides/019dd923-5e88-73ef-bd59-dddef82be3b0/168", "deckHref": "/decks/019dd923-5e88-73ef-bd59-dddef82be3b0", "deckJsonHref": "/decks/019dd923-5e88-73ef-bd59-dddef82be3b0.json", "deckAnchorHref": "/decks/019dd923-5e88-73ef-bd59-dddef82be3b0#slide-168", "components": [ { "bbox": { "h": 0.2, "w": 0.8, "x": 0.1, "y": 0.52 }, "kind": "paragraph", "text": "There is another view, however, according to which this whole system is a sham. Tim Hwang and others argue that behavioural advertising simply doesn't work – the predictions sold to sellers are largely wrong and the ads they direct rarely get us to buy anything (Hwang 2020). But, as Hwang points out, that does not mean people do not benefit from online advertising. We benefit from it, enjoying for free all the services digital ads underwrite, which we would have to pay for if the ads went away. On this view, personal data is a conduit carrying money from the advertising budgets of sellers into the hands of app makers and producers of online content (with, again, the surveillance industry collecting its cut along the way). In other words, the companies running ads are being exploited for our benefit.", "attrs": null, "subkind": "paragraph", "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "16949544-533c-4d0b-b667-702ad99a4ada", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": { "h": 0.1, "w": 0.8, "x": 0.1, "y": 0.76 }, "kind": "paragraph", "text": "To this point, I have discussed platforms in general terms, focusing on what they do and whether we ought to accept it rather than on what they are and how they are able to treat people this way. I turn now to the latter: what platforms are, how they can engage in these different forms of exploitation, and what role digital technology specifically is playing in all of this.", "attrs": null, "subkind": "paragraph", "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "5a66cce1-b92c-472d-89b4-7d5ef89aebec", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": { "h": 0.2, "w": 0.8, "x": 0.1, "y": 0.1 }, "kind": "paragraph", "text": "two options: accept the terms or forego the service. As many have argued, this rarely amounts to a real choice. If, for example, one is required to use Microsoft Office or Google Docs as part of their job, are they meaningfully free to refuse the surveillance that comes with it? Put another way, many people are in a real sense dependent on digital technologies – for their jobs, at school, in their social lives – and surveillance advertisers, unfairly, take advantage of that dependency for their own gain.", "attrs": null, "subkind": "paragraph", "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "5ffba156-b00d-4574-a274-6399b3861872", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": { "h": 0.3, "w": 0.8, "x": 0.1, "y": 0.22 }, "kind": "paragraph", "text": "Having said that, it is worth asking further questions about how those gains are distributed – who benefits from this system? Much of the value derived from surveillance advertising obviously flows directly into the industry's own coffers: revenue from online advertising accounts for the vast majority of profits at Google and Facebook, the two largest industry players (Hwang 2020). But where does the surplus come from? According to one view, elaborated most dramatically by Shoshana Zuboff, the surplus comes from us. It is a “behavioural surplus” – information about our individual desires, habits, and hang-ups, used to steer us toward buying stuff (Zuboff 2019). According to this argument, personal information and the predictions they make possible are merely conduits, carrying money from regular people's pockets into the hands of companies running ads (with the surveillance industry taking a cut along the way). In other words, data subjects are being exploited for the benefit of advertisers and sellers.", "attrs": null, "subkind": "paragraph", "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "95864291-97f2-4c45-a372-63211f6d254b", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": { "h": 0.05, "w": 0.8, "x": 0.1, "y": 0.88 }, "kind": "source-note", "text": "21 For an overview, see Susser (2019). 22 For a more careful investigation into this question and its implications, see Daniel Susser and Vincent Grimaldi (2021).", "attrs": null, "subkind": null, "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "44b16109-e20a-4023-82e5-bccb01888763", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": { "h": 0.02, "w": 0.38, "x": 0.31, "y": 0.73 }, "kind": "title", "text": "10.3 WHAT'S OLD IS NEW AGAIN", "attrs": null, "subkind": "headline", "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "df7a08d3-033b-497d-8a3e-7239babab4f3", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null } ], "metrics": [], "tools": [ { "name": "Pyramid Principle", "slug": "pyramid-principle", "agent": "Architect", "layer": "slide", "matchId": "a7c9a024-fc40-4026-974e-bcbd94f9687e", "evidence": "Having said that, it is worth asking further questions about how those gains are distributed – who benefits from this system?", "confidence": 0.6 } ], "frameworks": [], "arcBeats": [], "loops": [], "imagePathAlt": null, "thumbSrc": null, "thumbSrcAlt": null, "locked": true }