scholarly journals Public attitudes towards algorithmic personalization and use of personal data online: evidence from Germany, Great Britain, and the United States

Author(s):  
Anastasia Kozyreva ◽  
Philipp Lorenz-Spreen ◽  
Ralph Hertwig ◽  
Stephan Lewandowsky ◽  
Stefan M. Herzog

AbstractPeople rely on data-driven AI technologies nearly every time they go online, whether they are shopping, scrolling through news feeds, or looking for entertainment. Yet despite their ubiquity, personalization algorithms and the associated large-scale collection of personal data have largely escaped public scrutiny. Policy makers who wish to introduce regulations that respect people’s attitudes towards privacy and algorithmic personalization on the Internet would greatly benefit from knowing how people perceive personalization and personal data collection. To contribute to an empirical foundation for this knowledge, we surveyed public attitudes towards key aspects of algorithmic personalization and people’s data privacy concerns and behavior using representative online samples in Germany (N = 1065), Great Britain (N = 1092), and the United States (N = 1059). Our findings show that people object to the collection and use of sensitive personal information and to the personalization of political campaigning and, in Germany and Great Britain, to the personalization of news sources. Encouragingly, attitudes are independent of political preferences: People across the political spectrum share the same concerns about their data privacy and show similar levels of acceptance regarding personalized digital services and the use of private data for personalization. We also found an acceptability gap: People are more accepting of personalized services than of the collection of personal data and information required for these services. A large majority of respondents rated, on average, personalized services as more acceptable than the collection of personal information or data. The acceptability gap can be observed at both the aggregate and the individual level. Across countries, between 64% and 75% of respondents showed an acceptability gap. Our findings suggest a need for transparent algorithmic personalization that minimizes use of personal data, respects people’s preferences on personalization, is easy to adjust, and does not extend to political advertising.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia Kozyreva ◽  
Philipp Lorenz-Spreen ◽  
Ralph Hertwig ◽  
Stephan Lewandowsky ◽  
Stefan Michael Herzog

Despite their ubiquity online, personalization algorithms and the associated large-scale collection of personal data have largely escaped public scrutiny. Yet policy makers who wish to introduce regulations that respect people's attitudes towards privacy and algorithmic personalization on the Internet would greatly benefit from knowing how people perceive different aspects of personalization and data collection. To contribute to an empirical foundation for this knowledge, we surveyed public attitudes using representative online samples in Germany, Great Britain, and the United States on key aspects of algorithmic personalization and on people's data privacy concerns and behavior. Our findings show that people object to the collection and use of sensitive personal information and to the personalization of political campaigning and, in Germany and Great Britain, to the personalization of news sources. Encouragingly, attitudes are independent of political preferences: People across the political spectrum share the same concerns about their data privacy and the effects of personalization on news and politics. We also found that people are more accepting of personalized services than of the collection of personal data and information currently collected for these services. This acceptability gap---the difference between the acceptability of personalized online services and the acceptability of the collection and use of data and information---in people's attitudes can be observed at both the aggregate and the individual level. Our findings suggest a need for transparent algorithmic personalization that respects people’s data privacy, can be easily adjusted, and does not extend to political advertising.





Slave No More ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 164-196
Author(s):  
Aline Helg

This chapter explores the shock waves caused by the Haitian Revolution and the massive slave insurrection that took both the Americas and Europe by surprise. Despite the rarity of large-scale revolts after 1794, the Saint Domingue insurrection did have a lasting impact on the slaves. The greatest lesson they retained from Haiti was that the institution of slavery was neither unchangeable nor invincible. Amid the troubled backdrop of the age of revolutions, many attentively followed the legal changes upsetting their owners, like the Spanish Códigno Negro, the French abolition of slavery, gradual emancipation laws in the northern United States, and the ban of the slave trade by Great Britain and the United States. Furthermore, after 1794, protests during which slaves claimed freedom they believed to have been decreed by the king or the government, but hidden by their masters, multiplied.



Author(s):  
Araz Poladov

Purpose of research: define the general characteristics of the protection of personal data; analysis of legislation and case law.Methods of research: analysis and study of regulatory documents containing provisions on protection of personal data.Results: normative and practical importance of personal data protection provisions in various legal acts has been underscored.The right to privacy strengthened its position in the United States in the late 19th century and is now recognized by most States.Although the right to privacy in the United States was originally a British political legacy, judicial decisions in England were more conservativeand cautious than those of U.S. courts. One of the important features of this law in the Anglo-Saxon legal system is that itwas previously formed by judicial precedents and legal doctrine. Also, the right to privacy was not among the rights provided for in theBill of Rights. In general, there is an industry-wide approach to data privacy in the United States. There is no specific federal law thatwould guarantee the confidentiality and protection of personal data. Instead, legislation at the federal level is dispersed and aims to protectdata in certain sectors. Judicial practice and court decisions taken at different times play an important role in regulating personaldata protection in the United States. It is also worth mentioning that until the 1970s, decisions of the U.S. courts did not provide thenecessary privacy protection safeguards.Discussion: offering a comprehensive and detailed study and use of this practice in other states.



Significance The move comes after Facebook suspended a UK political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, following allegations on March 18 that it improperly obtained personal data on 50 million Facebook users that was subsequently used in political campaigns. The incident has reignited the debates in the United States and elsewhere on online privacy, targeted messaging and whether tech firms are now too powerful to be left to regulate themselves. Impacts First Amendment considerations will limit any efforts to control online political advertising in the United States. Accusations that Facebook facilitated foreign meddling in elections will dog it more than allegations of improper acquisitions of user data. Internal criticism of Facebook's practices by employees, former employees and investors may be greater agents for change than lawmakers.



Author(s):  
Oksana M. Makhalina ◽  
◽  
Viktor N. Makhalin ◽  

An issue of the population poverty is one of the most urgent to- day, both in Russia and around the world. The article considers the statistics of poverty in foreign countries as well as in Russia. In that rating, Russia ranks the 64th. The number of citizens falling under the category of poor in 2020 in- creased to 19.9 million people, which in relative terms is 13.5% of the country’s population. The causes of poverty are revealed, the sequence, forms and methods of overcoming poverty in Russia are formulated on the basis of foreign experi- ence in combating poverty. The decline in the income of the Russian popula- tion according to Rosstat in the 2nd quarter of 2020 in annual terms was 8%. GDP declined by 8%, while Canada’s GDP – 13.5%, Germany – 11.7%, and the United States – 9.5%. It is because since the beginning of the pandemic, many developed countries have implemented large-scale material support for the population. The article analyzes a variety of specific ways and methods of combating poverty in the United States, Great Britain, Spain, India, Finland and other countries. Also it presents results of the experiment with application of the method of using unconditional income, support of the population of the Neth- erlands, Canada, Mongolia, Iran, Kenya, and Germany. The article presents the experience of supporting the population in Russia, where that activity was focused on supporting the families with children. The results prove that such a support option cannot be called large-scale and effec- tive, since, as summing, the real incomes of citizens, unlike in other countries, oddly enough, decreased. Poverty and unemployment continue to grow in the context of the current pandemic. Therefore the conclusion contains proposals on how to overcome the poverty and unemployment in our country.



2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Isaac Hoffmann ◽  
Kristopher Velasco

As same-sex couples gain greater social acceptance and new rights, their numbers in the United States are rapidly increasing. Yet few researchers have studied immigrants in same-sex couples on a large scale. Using the American Community Survey from 2008 to 2019, this study compares immigrants in same-sex couples to corresponding different-sex couples in order to characterize and assess the scale of “sexual migration” to the U.S. Moreover, we evaluate how the policy environment regarding same-sex couples shapes migratory patterns. We find that, compared to different-sex immigrant couples, immigrants in same-sex couples come from richer, more democratic countries that are less represented in immigrant networks. Fixed effects models show that as origin countries become more LGBT-friendly, we see more LGB immigrants from those countries in the U.S. On the individual level, immigrants in same-sex couples are more likely to live in progressive U.S. states, an effect that increases in strength as migrants come from for more LGBT-friendly countries of origin. Our findings put into question dominant models of migration that emphasize economic and network effects, suggesting the importance of considering sexuality as well as political and lifestyle motivations more broadly.



2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 79-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Cohen

Working out large-scale processes through close attention to local-level analysis remained central to Louise Tilly's approach to social history. An ongoing commitment to agency and strategy undergirded her vision for a global history that made connections between large-scale processes across space, between human agency and structure, and between the past and present. Her vision remains an important influence in my coauthored comparative history of the welfare state in England, France, and the United States. This is illustrated by a discussion of unemployment policies in the three countries at one particular moment of crisis, the Great Depression, concentrating on the United States, where the Depression hit first and hit the hardest. Important differences in demography, the mobilization of ordinary citizens, the responsiveness of state structures to democratic pressure, and public attitudes about the legitimate role of government all affected the history of unemployment policy in each country.



2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 403-421
Author(s):  
Alyssa K. McLeod

Direct-to-consumer genetic tests have become increasingly popular in the United States within the last few years. However, these tests pose many risks to the consumer, most notably privacy risks. A subset of these privacy risks involves the issue of company mergers, acquisitions, and sales. Many companies in the direct-to-consumer genetic testing market have privacy policies that contain a variation of a “business transfer” clause. These clauses specify that in the event the company goes through a business transition such as a sale, merger, or acquisition, the consumer’s personal information—including the consumer’s DNA—will be among the assets transferred. This Article explores the risks associated with these business transfer clauses as they relate to the consumer, and presents a solution to mitigate said risks. The solution lies in FTC v. Toysmart, wherein a toy company that filed for bankruptcy was restricted in selling its assets—which included its customers’ personal data— only to entities with the same interests as the toy company. This Article urges that the default interpretation standard of business transfer clauses track similarly such that a direct-to-consumer genetic testing company may only be sold to, merged with, or acquired by a company with the same or like interests.



2021 ◽  
pp. 089020702110388
Author(s):  
Hongfei Du ◽  
Friedrich M. Götz ◽  
Anli Chen ◽  
Peter J. Rentfrow

Person-culture fit perspectives posit that individuals have higher self-esteem when their values match the values of the sociocultural environment in which they live. The current study tested this hypothesis by examining the associations between value congruence and self-esteem in a large-scale sample in the United States ( N = 48,563). Multilevel response surface analyses revealed no evidence of value congruence effects on self-esteem, such that the agreement between individual- and state-level values did not positively predict self-esteem for any of the 10 basic values. Instead, we found positive (stimulation, security) and negative (conformity) linear associations between individual-level values and self-esteem. We also found positive curvilinear relationships between individual-level achievement and tradition values and self-esteem, and negative curvilinear relationships between individual-level self-direction, hedonism, power, benevolence, and universalism values and self-esteem. In addition, state-level values moderated the relationship between values and self-esteem for tradition, universalism, and conformity values. In federal states with stronger endorsement of tradition values, individuals’ tradition values were more positively associated with self-esteem. In contrast, in states with stronger endorsement of universalism values, individuals’ universalism values were more negatively associated with self-esteem. Lastly, individuals’ conformity values were negatively associated with self-esteem, particularly in states with weaker endorsement of conformity values.



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