scholarly journals Data as asset? The measurement, governance, and valuation of digital personal data by Big Tech

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 205395172110173
Author(s):  
Kean Birch ◽  
DT Cochrane ◽  
Callum Ward

Digital personal data is increasingly framed as the basis of contemporary economies, representing an important new asset class. Control over these data assets seems to explain the emergence and dominance of so-called “Big Tech” firms, consisting of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google/Alphabet, and Facebook. These US-based firms are some of the largest in the world by market capitalization, a position that they retain despite growing policy and public condemnation—or “techlash”—of their market power based on their monopolistic control of personal data. We analyse the transformation of personal data into an asset in order to explore how personal data is accounted for, governed, and valued by Big Tech firms and other political-economic actors (e.g., investors). However, our findings show that Big Tech firms turn “users” and “user engagement” into assets through the performative measurement, governance, and valuation of user metrics (e.g., user numbers, user engagement), rather than extending ownership and control rights over personal data per se. We conceptualize this strategy as a form of “techcraft” to center attention on the means and mechanisms that Big Tech firms deploy to make users and user data measurable and legible as future revenue streams.

Sensors ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 4175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Angeletti ◽  
Ioannis Chatzigiannakis ◽  
Andrea Vitaletti

In the era of the Internet of Things (IoT), drug developers can potentially access a wealth of real-world, participant-generated data that enable better insights and streamlined clinical trial processes. Protection of confidential data is of primary interest when it comes to health data, as medical condition influences daily, professional, and social life. Current approaches in digital trials entail that private user data are provisioned to the trial investigator that is considered a trusted party. The aim of this paper is to present the technical requirements and the research challenges to secure the flow and control of personal data and to protect the interests of all the involved parties during the first phases of a clinical trial, namely the characterization of the potential patients and their possible recruitment. The proposed architecture will let the individuals keep their data private during these phases while providing a useful sketch of their data to the investigator. Proof-of-concept implementations are evaluated in terms of performances achieved in real-world environments.


Urban Studies ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 48 (15) ◽  
pp. 3329-3345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volker Eick

The FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany saw the largest display of domestic security since 1945. More than 250 000 police officers from the state and federal police, 7000 military guards, 20 000 private security contractors and an unknown number of intelligence service officers operated in the 12 host cities during the four-week event. In addition, more than 20 000 volunteers took part in security and safety measures, constituting what have become known as ‘pop-up armies’. Surveillance technologies were deployed, including but not limited to airborne warning and control system planes (AWACS), a variety of security robots, video surveillance cameras and radio frequency identification chips (RFID). Data banks stored more than 250 000 personal data files of FIFA employees and another 10 million of those persons applying for tickets. The paper first describes how, since the early 20th century, FIFA has been embracing neo-liberalism as a ‘neo-communitarian entrepreneur’. Secondly, it analyses how FIFA enabled itself to set the preconditions for candidate and host cities to carry out the event. Thirdly, it develops the concept of ‘legacy’ in order to allow for an understanding of the World Cup’s positive and negative impacts for all stakeholders involved. Fourthly, it examines the 2006 World Cup in Germany as a sports-related ‘security assemblage’, deciphering why parts of the assemblage were dismantled whereas others remained after the World Cup was over. Finally, it draws some conclusions about the role of FIFA as an incubator for a ‘sustained securitisation’ of host and post-host cities.


2021 ◽  
pp. 125-129
Author(s):  
Esther Keymolen

AbstractHuman beings are technical beings. From the clothes we wear to the spaceships we fire into the sky, all these technologies are developed with the aim to protect ourselves, improve ourselves, and control the fickle world in which we live. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that when hit with one of the biggest health crises of the last century, all over the world, governments have turned to technology to contain this life-threatening event. Most of these proposed—or already developed—technological solutions are data-driven.Just as the turn to technology to solve this crisis does not come as a surprise, neither does the protest it has caused. Critical citizens and civil rights organizations worry about the possibility of personal data being shared with private parties, about governments ending up using the collected information against citizens, and they fear an overall loss of privacy and freedom if these applications became widely used. Overall, they suspect that what is introduced as a temporary instrument to counter this crisis will have long-lasting effects on society.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanton Heister ◽  
Kristi Yuthas

Recent increases in security breaches and digital surveillance highlight the need for improved privacy and security, particularly over users’ personal data. Advances in cybersecurity and new legislation promise to improve data protection. Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies provide novel opportunities for protecting user data through decentralized identity and other privacy mechanisms. These systems can allow users greater sovereignty through tools that enable them to own and control their own data. Artificial intelligence provides further possibilities for enhancing system and user security, enriching data sets, and supporting improved analytical models.


EDIS ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Demian F. Gomez ◽  
Jiri Hulcr ◽  
Daniel Carrillo

Invasive species, those that are nonnative and cause economic damage, are one of the main threats to ecosystems around the world. Ambrosia beetles are some of the most common invasive insects. Currently, severe economic impacts have been increasingly reported for all the invasive shot hole borers in South Africa, California, Israel, and throughout Asia. This 7-page fact sheet written by Demian F. Gomez, Jiri Hulcr, and Daniel Carrillo and published by the School of Forest Resources and Conservation describes shot hole borers and their biology and hosts and lists some strategies for prevention and control of these pests. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fr422


Author(s):  
Y. Arockia Suganthi ◽  
Chitra K. ◽  
J. Magelin Mary

Dengue fever is a painful mosquito-borne infection caused by different types of virus in various localities of the world. There is no particular medicine or vaccine to treat person suffering from dengue fever. Dengue viruses are transmitted by the bite of female Aedes (Ae) mosquitoes. Dengue fever viruses are mainly transmitted by Aedes which can be active in tropical or subtropical climates. Aedes Aegypti is the key step to avoid infection transmission to save millions of people in all over the world. This paper provides a standard guideline in the planning of dengue prevention and control measures. At the same time gives the priorities including clinical management and hospitalized dengue patients have to address essentially.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-204
Author(s):  
Shrikant Verma ◽  
Mohammad Abbas ◽  
Sushma Verma ◽  
Syed Tasleem Raza ◽  
Farzana Mahdi

A novel spillover coronavirus (nCoV), with its epicenter in Wuhan, China's People's Republic, has emerged as an international public health emergency. This began as an outbreak in December 2019, and till November eighth, 2020, there have been 8.5 million affirmed instances of novel Covid disease2019 (COVID-19) in India, with 1,26,611 deaths, resulting in an overall case fatality rate of 1.48 percent. Coronavirus clinical signs are fundamentally the same as those of other respiratory infections. In different parts of the world, the quantity of research center affirmed cases and related passings are rising consistently. The COVID- 19 is an arising pandemic-responsible viral infection. Coronavirus has influenced huge parts of the total populace, which has prompted a global general wellbeing crisis, setting all health associations on high attentive. This review sums up the overall landmass, virology, pathogenesis, the study of disease transmission, clinical introduction, determination, treatment, and control of COVID-19 with the reference to India.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (10-3) ◽  
pp. 82-92
Author(s):  
Gekkaya Funda

The formation of external policy of any country aims at serving the state’s interests. For this matter, many countries seek their way through this by taking into account the potential prospects available to them. The fundamental subtleties and factors that influence a state’s choices of external policy include geographical location, history, security, culture, trade, political ideology, military might, et cetera. Countries often make external contacts based on some regulations and response to unfolding events. Thus, external policy to an extent pertains to the guiding principles outlined to be pursued through state values, decisions and actions taken by the states themselves and their attempt to develop, manage and control the external relations of national societies. In this regard, the Caucasian region has been an important factor in Turkey’s foreign policy. Since these states emerged in the early 1990s, energy has taken a center stage within the region, while Turkey remains a transit route to the world...


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 9538-9542

In vision of searching for the right Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) for a specific mission, there are multiple factors to be considered by the operator such as mission, endurance, type of payload and range of the telemetry and control. This research is focusing on extending control range of the UAS by using 4G-LTE network to enable beyond-line-of-sight flying for the commercial UAS. Major UAS such Global Hawk, Predator MQ-1 are able to fly thousands of kilometers by the use of satellite communication. However, the satellite communication annual license subscription can be very expensive. With this situation in mind, a new type of flight controller with 4G-LTE communication has been developed and tested. Throughout the research, blended-wing-body (BWB) Baseline B2S is used as the platform for technology demonstrator. Result from this analysis has proven that the proposed system is capable to control a UAS from as far as United Kingdom, with a latency less than 881 ms in average. The new added capability can potentially give the commercial UAS community a new horizon to be able to control their UAS from anywhere around the world with the availability of 4G-LTE connection


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