How digitisation affects personal data and raises social and ethical concerns
Digitised personal data is being recorded at a tremendous rate. Decision-makers are carefully considering the social and ethical issues pertaining to digital identities. However, systematic analysis is required to better understand fundamental rights and the link between technology and society, ethics and norms. The EU-funded DIGIDEAS (Social and ethical aspects of digital identities. Towards a value sensitive identity management) project set out to increase understanding and awareness of the social and ethical features of IDM, and gain insight into the role digitisation plays in modern notions of identity. To achieve its goals, DIGIDEAS used as a basis findings from a broad range of fields, from surveillance studies to philosophy of technology. It studied these domains as they concern actual developments and issues in IDM. Project partners conducted interdisciplinary studies that focused on four specific areas where digitisation developments are key to transforming IDM practice and influencing identity. The first concerned the introduction and use of new digital technologies and social media monitoring tools in daily policing in Romania and the Netherlands, and how these have transformed policing and what constitutes a suspect. Second, the DIGIDEAS team studied the introduction and use of new registration and information sharing systems in child protection, youth care and juvenile crime prevention practices, particularly the classification and profiling of risk and at-risk children. Researchers also investigated the use of digital identification, verification and risk profiling tools in migration management and border management, especially how they influence perception and treatment of migrants and travellers as being at risk or posing a risk. Lastly, team members explored the use of social media and online tools for profiling and targeting consumers, focusing on children and strategies and tools that parents and other stakeholders utilise to make the internet safe for youth. DIGIDEAS successfully demonstrated that modern technology greatly influences perceptions of risk. Moreover, the use of such technological tools is legitimised to morally justify more intensive monitoring, information sharing and systems.
Keywords
Digitisation, personal data, identity management, digital identities, DIGIDEAS