The Possibilities of Data Resistance in a Digital Society

by Kyle Beadle, University College London

Report cover
Year
2024
Publisher
The British Academy
Number of pages
13

Summary

In our digital society, marginalised and vulnerable populations are unequally at risk of discrimination, surveillance, and lack of representation from the collection, analysis, and usage of their data. Instead of submitting to these consequences of our digital society, data resistance, or the subversive and productive act of responding to the power of corporate and governmental data practices, offers a way out.

This paper presents acts of data resistance from across the globe to argue that a good digital society mirrors a good democratic society – one that supports individual and collective agency, autonomy, and empowerment, strengthens democratic values and promotes equality and justice, and stimulates market competition. The paper concludes with three, brief policy provocations, imposing a data tax, enabling participatory governance of data regulation, and establishing self-sovereign identity, all of which build upon the work of activists, academics, and artists dedicated to creating a better digital society.

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