IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2022 - 78

Commentary
Commentary
Shadow (Profiles) in the Dark (Patterns):
Who Locked Your Digital Self?
Agnieszka Rychwalska
Robert Zajonc Institute for Social Studies,
University of Warsaw, 00-927 Warsaw, Poland
 In InformatIon socIetIes, data are power.
Those who have access to data gain unprecedented
opportunities to impact the behavior of other actors:
individuals whose opinions and actions can be
manipulated by targeted information, regulators
who can be lobbied and persuaded through influencing
public debate to protect data collectors, or
smaller private actors, whose capacities to gather
their own data can be limited through limited access
to markets. In effect, the rich in data get richer and
their pursuit of profit has profound implications for
inequalities in modern societies, both economic as
well as in social and political rights. Finding a cure to
such imbalances requires understanding why data is
shared in the first place, and how data producers-
mostly individuals-are nudged to share. In this article,
I discuss the possible psychological processes
that entice digital media users to accept their role as
data sources and what are the implications of massive
data collection and user profiling for individual
and societal well-being.
With its widespread adoption of new communication
technologies, the information age has brought
much hope for erasing the inequalities of industrial
times: free and unlimited access to knowledge, unrestricted
by physical boundaries and borders, was
thought to even the playing field for all citizens in the
new cyberspace [1] (see [2]). Yet, as the digital revolution
takes a firm hold, it becomes apparent that
entirely new inequalities appear, often deepening
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2022.3173320
Date of current version: 14 June 2022.
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0278-0097/22©2022 IEEE
existing divides. In the information age, data are
crucial for economic and political success, and
access to data is what defines the power structure
in information societies [3]. Access to data allows
some actors (mainly the so-called Big Tech companies,
or GAFA: Google, Amazon, Facebook/Meta,
Apple) to build strategical advantages over others.
In their race for profit, these actors construct databased
products, such as targeted commercial or
political advertisements, without much concern for
who buys such data derivatives, how the buyers use
them, and what effects they might have on society.
For example, the feeds in Meta's social media apps
are constructed to capture user attention and boost
engagement, which results in higher revenue from
ads, but in effect, such content feeds may lead to the
" problematic " (i.e., addictive) use of these platforms
[4]. As surveillance capitalism evolves, we are faced
with more and more of its negative side effects:
extremism, polarization, loss of trust in experts and
institutions, manipulation of public opinions, to
name a few, all leading to greater social inequalities.
While data can be gathered on various actors
(including smaller businesses) and used to influence
their operations, arguably, it is data collected
on individuals that feed the bulk of algorithms used
to predict and manipulate behaviors in information
societies. Data on individuals, their social relations,
economic decisions, and everyday behavior, shared
or tracked, with and without informed consent fuel
the growth of surveillance capitalism. It is tempting
to say that if only individuals were willing to curb
their information sharing, some balance could be
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2022

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