{"id":2601,"date":"2019-08-15T10:27:33","date_gmt":"2019-08-15T10:27:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/?p=2601"},"modified":"2019-07-27T09:20:23","modified_gmt":"2019-07-27T09:20:23","slug":"selling-data-is-selling-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/general-insights\/selling-data-is-selling-soul","title":{"rendered":"Selling Data is Selling Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2026 if the data are personal and in a big data context. It\u2019s like a Faustian deal, but Faust only sold his own soul. Where is Mephistopheles?<\/h3>\n

Big data + A.I. = big knowledge<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Artificial Intelligence is already so powerful that it can turn much data<\/em> (passive, unrelated) into knowledge<\/em> (active, related). \u2018Knowledge is power\u2019 becomes ever more scary in this setting. It\u2019s about big knowledge<\/u>.<\/p>\n

And it has barely begun.<\/p>\n

This is knowledge about how humans can be influenced\u2026 and manipulated.<\/p>\n

Guess what a party intends to do when paying for data?<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

An advertising company wants to make people buy more stuff, irrespective of real needs. Whether this extreme way of putting it here is realistic or not, isn\u2019t relevant. It\u2019s realistic enough.<\/p>\n

In politics, in religion, in amassing just plain personal power\u2026 You name it. The possibilities for manipulation are real and underway, if not already realized somehow.<\/p>\n

And it has barely begun.<\/p>\n

Gone is privacy<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As one dire side-effect.<\/p>\n

The knowledge which can be extracted from personal big data nowadays is such that people can be emotionally targeted almost at the individual level without needing access to names or identification numbers of any sort. This is: you are being modeled quite accurately. Then this model is targeted. Not you? Well\u2026 the model is almost like your second identity.<\/p>\n

As far as concerns the advertising company, it is you.<\/p>\n

As far as I know, there are not yet any regulations in this respect.<\/p>\n

With Lisa, this will be more important than ever<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lisa gets a\u00a0deeper<\/em> knowledge about people in general and individuals in particular.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s not joke about it: this can be used for good and for bad. It can be used by Lisa herself and \u2013 eventually \u2013 by anyone who gets the data=knowledge.<\/p>\n

This makes ethics immensely important!<\/p>\n

AURELIS will never sell personal data<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A pledge:<\/p>\n

As part of AURELIS \/ Lisa ethics, we will never sell any user data, nor work with a company that does not explicitly state the same.<\/em><\/p>\n

It may be clear why this is a very strict rule.<\/p>\n

We forsake the income of selling data, even while we \u201ccould do much good with the money.\u201d Faustian mythology makes us extremely careful.<\/p>\n

This is a challenge within a very competitive world. We need to be better than merely idealistic. So, what we can \u2013 hopefully \u2013 gain from our stance, among other things:<\/p>\n