Data lives and privacy
"I don't think Facebook use my data at all. I know they've got it there, but they couldn't give it out to anybody because it's personal. I don't think they'd use it for anything."
The Information Commissioner's Office wanted to build a foundational understanding of the UK public and its attitudes, behaviours and beliefs around data and privacy. This research provided an empathetic view on how real people interact with their data, in order to furnish the ICO with potential routes for future research, as well as to bring the voice of the customer into the heart of the ICO's decision-making. We spoke to 30 members of the UK public, 8 of whom took part in a full-day, face-to-face ethnography. The research identified a fundamental imbalance of power between data processors (companies) and their customers. Data rights feel conditional and fragile, as though they can be signed away and overruled with one slight error or one click. We saw that the data user cannot always predict the consequences of their data sharing. This makes sense: the GDPR presents the user with a set of legal rights, but citizens are not lawyers, and they rely on common-sense and moral principles of good behaviour in their assumptions about the companies they share data with.
