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List of Abbreviations
- Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland Maynooth
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- Book:
- Data Lives
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- Bristol University Press
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- 05 January 2022
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- 03 February 2021, pp vii-ix
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6 - How to Lose (and Regain) 3.6 Billion Euros
- Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland Maynooth
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- Data Lives
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- Bristol University Press
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- 05 January 2022
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- 03 February 2021, pp 45-50
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The Assistant Secretary couldn’t help feeling like a schoolboy every time he entered the General Secretary’s office. The man was perfectly polite, but in a way that made it clear where power resided. And one didn’t get to be head of the Department of Finance without knowing how to protect one’s position or the most effective way to stick a knife into a colleague. Arguably it was the most powerful post in the civil service, controlling the purse strings for every cent of public sector spend in the country.
The great man had made a show of staring at the spreadsheet. Now he slowly raised his gaze. ‘Three point six billioneuros?’
‘That’s correct,’ the Assistant Secretary confirmed, resisting the temptation to look away.
‘You’re telling me, Peter, that the Department – ourdepartment, lost three point six billion euros?’
‘Well, gained it really. We double counted it.’ Even to his own ears his repost sounded weak.
‘Except it was debt. So, we double counted the debt. We doubled how much we owe.’
‘Yes.’ Peter tried to inject a bit of positivity into his voice. ‘But by finding it, we reduce government debt by 2.3 per cent.’
He really wanted to run a finger round his collar. This whole mess could be career-ending. Right at the point where the Gen Sec in Agriculture would soon be retiring. The vacant post would be the perfect opportunity to step up to the top table. Besides, the buck should stop with his boss; he was ultimately responsible for everything that happened within the Department.
‘Two point three per cent. God, Peter, that’s huge.’ The General Secretary’s frown deepened. ‘And all because of a spreadsheet error by a staff member in yourdivision?’
Peter inwardly cursed. The old bastard.
‘It was a relatively simple mistake to make. The accountant wasn’t sure how to classify a loan to the HFA from the NTMA. They’d assumed that it might be adjusted for elsewhere in the GGD calculations. It wasn’t. So it appears twice in the national accounts, once as an asset for the NTMA and once as a liability for the HFA.’
‘A data entry error then,’ the General Secretary conceded. ‘Why wasn’t it picked up by their line manager? How come it never worked its way up to you?’
And there was the knife. Slid delicately between ribs.
27 - Data Futures
- Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland Maynooth
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- Book:
- Data Lives
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- Bristol University Press
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- 05 January 2022
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- 03 February 2021, pp 219-228
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We live in a data-driven world. How we make sense of the world is increasingly mediated through data-rich technologies, not based simply on our everyday experiences, practical knowledge and learned ideas. Many of our activities produce data and are shaped by data-driven processes and systems. How society is governed and organizations managed is evermore technocratic in nature, dependent on big data streams and mass dataveillance. Our economies and practices of work are transforming through the rise in digital labour, automation, platform ecosystems and surveillance capitalism. As digital technologies come to be further embedded into the fabric of our infrastructures, environments and social systems, and actively mediate our everyday lives, our reliance on data will intensify. Our future is one saturated with and molded by data.
My aim in this book has been to shine a critical light onto the nature and life of data and to chart the rapid unfolding and impact of data-driven technologies, processes and practices on how we live our lives. To use my own professional experience of working with data, creating data infrastructures and data policy, and reflecting on data-driven technologies and their consequences, to provide data stories and analysis that reveal the praxes and politics in the life of data and how we live with data.
What those stories revealed is that up until relatively recently, we have focused little conceptual and critical attention on data themselves. Instead, we have tended to think about and treat them in quite technical terms: focusing on how to collect, handle, process, analyze, store and share them. Data were understood to be the building blocks for information and knowledge, and what critical attention were paid to them generally concerned issues such as access and data quality. In the last couple of decades, it has become apparent that data are not simply a raw material that are mined, assembled and worked upon through technical processes. Rather, data are produced within a socio-technical context, their life cycle influenced by a range of factors. Data do not pre-exist their generation and are not teleological, absolute and essential (pre-determined, natural and invariable). Data are cooked and are contingent and relational; mutable under the conditions of their production and use.
14 - Traces and Shadows
- Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland Maynooth
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- Book:
- Data Lives
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- Bristol University Press
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- 05 January 2022
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- 03 February 2021, pp 111-120
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Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, I lived in a fairly analogue and small data world. All of our household appliances were electro-mechanical. My homework was paper-based and marked by hand. If I wanted to discover information, I went to the library and searched through hard copy books. Our car was purely mechanical, with no digital components or network links. I listened to music via the radio or by playing vinyl records or tape cassettes, and television consisted of three then four channels. Communication was by written letter and a landline phone. Undoubtedly, I appeared in a few key government databases, but most of my education, health and welfare records were stored in paper files.
There were some hints of the digital world to come. In the late 1970s, my parents bought a clone games machine that enabled the video game Pongto be played on the television, and in 1981 I received a ZX81 personal computer as a Christmas present. It had 1K of memory (16K with a booster block). To play games I first had to type in the programs then save them onto a tape cassette. A couple of years later, my parents bought a Spectrum computer for the family, which had slightly more local memory (16K, expandable to 128K), colour graphics, and you could buy pre-made games on cassette. In the mid-1980s, my father had a satellite phone installed in his company car so he could be contacted when he was driving around the country to visit work sites. I left home for university in 1988. The library catalogue was still mostly card based, but it was possible to do some electronic search for items. My essays were handwritten or typed, and communication with staff and departments was via letters and noticeboards. In 1989, I first accessed the internet, still in the pre-web era, and had my first email account in the same year, though I barely used it as few other people I knew had an address.
In the 1990s, everything seemed to change. When I started my Master’s degree in GIS in 1991, my parents bought me my first personal computer. For £900 I got a 286 IBM clone with 1Mb of internal memory and 16Mb hard drive.
8 - Open-and-Shut Case
- Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland Maynooth
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- Data Lives
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- Bristol University Press
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- 05 January 2022
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- 03 February 2021, pp 61-68
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‘The key thing here,’ Professor Sarah Jenkins said to her colleague, ‘is to try and get the Department to take open data seriously. It doesn’t matter if it’s through us or others, or even themselves. We just need them to get their act together and to make more data accessible.’
They both knew that wasn’t quite true. Without an injection of funds their own open data initiative, the Regional Data Lab, was in danger of winding down. They weren’t quite at the makeor-break point, but it was always hovering nearby.
Dr McNeill nodded. ‘I’m not holding my breath.’
He’d been banging the open data drum for a number of years. In his experience, government had very little interest in making their data available, and even less enthusiasm for spending money during austerity. And open data was not free data; somebody had to pay for the labour of preparing data for release and building the necessary data infrastructure.
A middle-aged man poked his head out of a nearby door. ‘Professor Jenkins? I’m Paul Lester, the principal officer for open government. Come in, come in.’
The room was small and cramped, overfilled with bookcases and filing cabinets. The dirty window provided a view of another office building.
Lester retreated behind his desk. ‘The unit was only set up a few months ago, so we’re still finding our feet. I know you met one of my colleagues at the open data consultative panel; he said you’ve got a proposal concerning open data tools for the public sector?’
‘That’s partially why we’re here, but also to get a sense of what you do and the roadmap for making more government data accessible,’ Professor Jenkins said. ‘I’m not sure what you know about us, but basically we work with local authorities and government departments to create open data tools – mainly interactive maps and graphs – to aid their work. And we’re always looking for more data to plug into our tools.’
‘That’s the Regional Data Lab website?’ Lester said, aware he should have taken a closer look at the site before the meeting.
‘That’s us. What we do is take what data are already openly available and make them useable for those that lack the skills to build their own tools so they can use them in formulating policy.
16 - The Quantified Self
- Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland Maynooth
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- Book:
- Data Lives
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- Bristol University Press
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- 05 January 2022
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- 03 February 2021, pp 127-136
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The first day of the workshop is over and most of the invited guests have joined The Programmable City team for pre-dinner drinks at a restaurant close to Maynooth Castle. For once, it’s not raining and we’re sitting outside. The professor opposite me is twirling her wrist. Ten minutes later, she’s still rotating her arm, though a little less enthusiastically. Curiosity eventually wins out.
‘Is there something wrong?’ I ask.
‘No, why?’
‘You seem a little agitated.’ I point to her arm.
‘Oh, that. I’m doing my steps.’
‘What?’
‘I’m fooling my Fitbit into thinking I’m doing my steps.’
‘Why?’
‘So I don’t ruin my stats.’
‘Why don’t you just go for a walk? It’s still half an hour until dinner. You could do a loop round the campus, or go along the canal.’
She shrugs her shoulders. ‘I wanted to come for drinks.’
‘You could always go for a walk afterwards. It’ll still be light.’
‘I’ll be too tired then. Anyway, 15 more minutes and I should reach my quota.’
‘But you’ll know that you’ve juked your stats.’
‘Yes, but there won’t be a blip in them.’
‘Are you part of the quantified-self movement then?’ I ask, thinking she wants to maintain good stats for when she compares them with others.
‘No, no. I’m just trying to get myself in shape. Walk 10,000 steps a day.’
‘So you’re not sharing your data with anyone?’
‘God, no.’ She laughs. ‘I’m the only person who looks at it.’
‘So why are you creating false data?’ I’m genuinely perplexed. If you’re the only person who’s going to see your self-created data, why would you juke your own stats? It makes little sense to me.
‘Because I don’t want to mess up my data. I’ve hit the target every day for the past three weeks.’
‘Except you won’t have done today. And even if your data says you did, you know that you didn’t. What difference does it make?’
She shrugs. ‘The blip will be annoying.’
‘And Fitbit will know as well. Once you upload your data they’ll know your step rate is too fast and that you were stationary.’
‘Yes, but that’s fine. It’ll just be an anomaly in my data. And I don’t really care what they think. Anyway, I could be on a treadmill.’
17 - Fighting Fires
- Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland Maynooth
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- Book:
- Data Lives
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- Bristol University Press
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- 05 January 2022
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- 03 February 2021, pp 137-142
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Kyle was too tired to leap to anger, but he could sense that it might erupt in him shortly. He leant forward in his chair. ‘So, what you’re saying is my benefits have been suspended because I haven’t applied for enough jobs.’
‘You haven’t applied for any jobs,’ Mrs Costello replied, trying to hide her embarrassment. The young man was clearly exhausted, his clothes were filthy and he smelled of sweat and smoke.
‘Yes, because if it hadn’t escaped your notice, the country is on fire. I’m a volunteer firefighter with the Rural Fire Service.’ He hadn’t showered before coming to the welfare office. He’d found the letter on the mat after 14 hours of battling flames through the night and early morning and got straight back in his car.
‘You still need to apply for the requisite number of jobs per week if you want to continue receiving benefits, Mr Kelly.’
‘Are you serious?’ Kyle closed his eyes. He was having difficulty getting his head around the situation: you bust a gut trying to help tackle a major disaster and the state screws you for your efforts. ‘I’ve been fighting fires almost full-time since September. Every day for the past six weeks. I’ve barely slept.’
‘I’m sorry, Mr Kelly, but there are rules that have to be followed.’
‘Surely you can make an exception given the circumstances?’
‘I’m afraid not. The system doesn’t accept fighting fires as a valid exception.’ More often than she would admit, Mrs Costello hated her work. She was left to explain the indefensible to people who deserved better. As far as she was concerned the system was failing Kyle Kelly. Not that she could tell him that. Instead, she had to parrot the institutional line.
‘But that’s crazy!’ Kyle snapped. ‘A state of emergency has been declared. Twelve million acres have burnt since July. Hundreds of houses have been destroyed, millions of wildlife killed. People have been evacuated and rescued. Two dozen people have lost their lives. Most of the time day seems like night because of the thick smoke. We’ve been trying to fight dozens of firestorms in 40-degree temperatures, hotter with the flames.’
4 - Gridlock
- Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland Maynooth
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- Book:
- Data Lives
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- Bristol University Press
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- 05 January 2022
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- 03 February 2021, pp 31-36
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Walter wasn’t sure of the reason, but there was definitely something odd happening. Congestion in the north of the city had started to build half an hour earlier than usual and was also heavier. Numerous junctions had become bottlenecks and long tailbacks were growing everywhere like coral tentacles.
He glanced up at the wall of screens at the front of the control room, each showing a live camera feed of a different junction. All of them were clogged. Around him, his fellow controllers were busy at their desks, each surrounded by three screens, in their hands a console with a joystick and number keypad.
Each morning was a battle to keep the traffic flowing. Usually the control room didn’t do too badly given the legacy road infrastructure – a medieval core, primary roads following old horse-and-coach routes, and inner suburbs laid out before mass car transit – and that four times as many vehicles than ideal were trying to traverse the network. But today they were losing the fight. Or at least, the traffic management system was.
‘Walter,’ his supervisor called, ‘look at camera 153!’
He tapped in the number bringing up the video feed on his left-hand screen. The junction was at a total standstill.
‘Do you see the black Merc,’ the supervisor said, ‘heading south, its nose in the yellow junction box? That’s the Dutch Prime Minister’s car. He’s meant to be giving the opening address at the European Commission’s meeting in the Mansion House in 30 minutes’ time. Somehow he’s got separated from his police escort. They’re stuck at the next junction.’
‘Yeah, I can see him.’
‘I need you to get him back to his escort then green-light them through the centre of town.’
‘I don’t know if that’s going to be possible,’ Walter said, toggling quickly between cameras located at several nearby junctions. ‘It’s chaos all around him.’
‘I don’t care how you do it, Walter, just make it happen.’
‘I’ll do my best, but …’ He didn’t finish the sentence, already lost in the task.
Whatever the problem was it probably lay with Travista, the traffic control system, which would almost certainly be the answer as well.
Seemingly muttering to himself, but actually chatting to Travista, Walter scanned through the lane flows and traffic light settings in the junctions surrounding the one that had trapped the Dutch Prime Minister.
3 - The Nature of Data
- Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland Maynooth
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- Book:
- Data Lives
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- Bristol University Press
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- 05 January 2022
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- 03 February 2021, pp 23-30
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The divergent positions of Emma and Julian in the previous chapter are illustrative of the different ways in which data are conceptualized within the academy. For Emma, data are straightforwardly raw pieces of information about the world, which she collects through her sound sensors. Sounds pre-exist their capture, and her measurements are directly representative of audible electromagnetic frequencies present in the atmosphere. In this sense, data seem unproblematic and commonsensical. They are benign, objective and non-ideological in character, reflecting the world as it is subject to technical constraints; they are raw measures that exist independent of philosophical thought. It is the job of the scientist – or government bureaucrat or business process controller – to collect and record data using suitable instruments and processes, and to use them to make sense of, and act in, the world. There is no politics or other agenda at play and the data collected can be taken at face value. The sensor simply measures sound, where the phenomenon measured is independent of the measuring process. By following established procedures and acting rigorously, high-quality data are captured.
Emma does not deny that there can be issues with integrity in data collection, but believes it is the job of the scientist to find the best, most representative way of capturing data, and to develop and apply techniques to effectively nullify any noise, errors or gaps in the dataset. In this way, the validity (represents what it is supposed to), veracity (accuracy and precision), and reliability (consistency over time) of the data, and any analysis undertaken using then, can be assured. In other words, for Emma, it is only the uses of data that are political, not the data themselves or the science used to collect and analyze them. This is reflected in the technical terms used by scientists to describe their data processes: ‘collected’, ‘entered’, ‘compiled’, ‘stored’, ‘processed’ and ‘mined’.
Julian has a fundamentally different view. He understands data as being produced not collected. Data do not pre-exist their generation, but are created through the process of conducting science. Decisions by scientists concerning the general methodological approach, specific techniques, instruments and their calibration, sampling frames and so on, make a difference to what data are manufactured.
Index
- Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland Maynooth
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- Book:
- Data Lives
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- Bristol University Press
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- 05 January 2022
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- 03 February 2021, pp 255-262
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24 - Data for the People, by the People
- Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland Maynooth
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- Data Lives
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- Bristol University Press
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- 05 January 2022
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- 03 February 2021, pp 187-196
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The occupants of the room are gathered in small groups at circular tables. The place is buzzing with chat and laughter. The tables are a mess of laptops, cables, brightly coloured stick-it notes, and paper cups and mugs. Off to one side is an open-plan kitchen with help-yourself drinks and snacks. Boxes of pizza will arrive later.
The attendees are taking part in a Code for Ireland meet-up. Participants gather once a month in the offices of different tech companies – this evening it is one of the lower floors of Google’s European headquarters in Dublin’s Docklands – to catch up and work on community-focused, tech-based, data-driven projects. Code for Ireland’s vision is to ‘Improve society and the lives of people in Ireland using technology.’ Their mission to ‘Develop innovative and sustainable solutions to real-world problems faced by communities across Ireland, by fostering collaboration with civic-minded individuals, businesses and public sector organisations.’
Most of those attending the meetups work in the tech-sector, and Code for Ireland enables them to apply their coding and data analytics skills to solve civic issues for the public good. Most of the issues being tackled relate to fixing something experienced by the participants. Interested stakeholders, such as local authority staff, have suggested others. The focus is specifically community and public services, and there is a transparency and open science ethos to the endeavour, with projects making their code freely available for others to use rather than seeking to make commercial products. The projects being worked on this evening all involve creating apps that provide useful information to members of the public.
I’m at the event for a couple of reasons. Given my work with AIRO and DRI, knowledge of open datasets, and working with public bodies on data issues, I am advising the attendees on possible sources of data, or how they might go about building a data relationship with those that hold relevant data. In addition, two of my colleagues, Sung-Yueh Perng and Sophia Maalsen regularly attend the meetings, as well as other citizen-led data and code initiatives, and I’m interested in what they are doing. While Sophia has yet to attach herself to a specific project, Sung-Yueh has become involved in a venture to build a queuing app for Irish immigration offices.
21 - Security Theatre
- Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland Maynooth
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- Book:
- Data Lives
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- Bristol University Press
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- 05 January 2022
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- 03 February 2021, pp 169-174
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The TSA official has a hang-dog face. Several hours repeating the same phrases, performing the same tasks, and dealing with hassled passengers for barely above minimum wage had taken its toll.
He passed the boarding card back to the woman and waved her to the left and a new queue. He gestured for Harry to step forward.
‘Your boarding card please, Sir.’
Harry handed it over.
‘Look into the camera here. Look up a bit. That’s it. Can you proceed to that queue over there please, Sir.’ The official held out the boarding card and gestured right.
‘Over there,’ Harry confirmed, pointing.
‘That’s the one.’
This was the second time in a row that he’d been selected for a special security check. Two months ago it had taken him over an hour to clear through to departures. He glanced at his watch. An hour this time would see him missing his flight. There wasn’t another until the following day, which would totally mess up his schedule. And since it wasn’t an ‘act of God’ the company would expect him to pay if a new ticket was needed.
‘Is there a reason I keep getting picked?’ he asked the official.
‘I’ve no idea. I just follow what it says when the barcode’s scanned. 4Ss. Secondary Security Screening Selectee.’
‘You think I’m a security risk?’ How could he be a risk, Harry mused. He hadn’t even had a parking fine, let alone done anything to warrant special attention when flying.
‘Not me personally,’ the agent said, looking over Harry’s shoulder at the next passenger. ‘The system. Probably something odd in your data. Or a glitch. If you don’t mind, Sir, you’re holding up the queue.’
‘But I might miss my flight.’
‘We tell everyone to arrive at the airport in good time. Please, sir, that way.’
Reluctantly Harry headed as directed joining the back of a short queue of ten people. At its head were two agents that were quizzing passengers before directing them to the hand luggage screening behind them. He hoped the queue would move quickly. He glanced at his watch again; he should make it. Fingers crossed.
10 - So More Trumps Better?
- Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland Maynooth
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- Book:
- Data Lives
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- Bristol University Press
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- 05 January 2022
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- 03 February 2021, pp 79-84
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Selena placed her coffee on a tall table and rolled her neck. She was still perplexed by a presentation she’d just witnessed and was torn between approaching the speaker to discuss their study and shying away.
A recently submitted job application to work in the same institute as the presenter was holding her back. She was reasonably certain that critiquing the research of a professor who could well be on the hiring panel would be an ill-judged move. And she was well aware that she had a habit of becoming immersed in a debate, which was fine if the aim was to win an argument and not care about the consequences, but less so if it jeopardized potential employment.
‘Dr Russo?’
She turned to the voice. The professor had found her.
‘Professor Brown! I was just at your talk.’
‘And what did you think?’
She’d set that up just perfectly. A couple of sentences and they’d already reached dangerous ground.
‘It … It was fascinating.’
He tilted his head, sensing her unease. ‘In a good way?’
And now she was trapped. If she answered ‘yes’, she’d have to spin a web of lies to justify the answer. If she said ‘no’ she’d have to explain her discontent. Neither seemed like an attractive option. Instead, she plumbed for: ‘Did you not think of using data from official sources?’
‘The whole point of the project was to try an alternative source.’
‘But why would you use Twitter data to examine fertility?’ There, she’d said it. She’d tipped herself over the edge and there was no going back.
‘Because Twitter’s a really rich set of social data,’ Frank said, smiling. He was still feeling upbeat after the positive feedback in the session. ‘There are 330 million active users globally and they’re tweeting about all kinds of issues, including health and family.’
‘But are they really tweeting about fertility?’ Selena pressed. ‘About children being born?’
‘They tweet about everything!’ Frank laughed. ‘About what they had for lunch, football matches, breaking news, celebrities, fashions, you name it. And about if they had a child.’
‘But you can hardly get a good sense of fertility rates from that, or reasons for the rate,’ Selena persisted.
20 - Big Brother is Watching and Controlling You
- Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland Maynooth
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- Book:
- Data Lives
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- Bristol University Press
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- 05 January 2022
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- 03 February 2021, pp 161-168
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‘You should take a blank.’
‘What?’
‘When you go to Hong Kong you should take a blank phone. Or wipe your present one.’
‘I’m sure it’ll be fine.’
‘Well, you’re the one who’s been writing about pervasive surveillance and social credit scoring in China, and how the protestors in Hong Kong are trying to protect their data traces.’
So begins a conversation with one of my colleagues about a trip to Hong Kong and Taiwan to present a set of talks about smart cities, ethics and social justice. I think he’s being somewhat paranoid. He’s quite serious, however.
My smartphone, he rightly points out, is a lifelog of my recent past. It provides a detailed itinerary of my movements. The apps reveal interests, activities and purchases, and the web browser the information I’ve searched for and browsed. The device gives access to several years’ worth of email, text and social media posts, and thus my thoughts, values and opinions. These communications, plus my address book, provide my network of contacts, including family, friends, colleagues, students and journalists.
My network does not include the details of those taking part in anti-government protests in Hong Kong or subversives in China, with whom I have had no contact. Nonetheless, my colleague was worried I might be considered a ‘person of interest’, particularly to security police in Hong Kong given that I write critically about what states do with citizen data, and issues of equity, citizenship, justice, civil rights and democracy. And I had recently been researching the Chinese state’s policies.
The conversation unnerves me. Expressing opinions and values, especially those that question the state, can get you in trouble in China; not that I’m going to China proper. Since 1997, when Britain gave up its lease on the territory, Hong Kong has been a special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China. Under the principle of ‘one country, two systems’ this special status means that there are separate governing and economic systems in Hong Kong to those in China, with devolved executive, legislative and judicial powers and local elections. China claims it is the rightful territorial sovereign of Taiwan, though the island’s democratically elected government rejects this, and there is an ongoing political dispute.
PART IV - Conclusion
- Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland Maynooth
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- Book:
- Data Lives
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- Bristol University Press
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- 05 January 2022
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- 03 February 2021, pp 205-206
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23 - Data Theft
- Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland Maynooth
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- Book:
- Data Lives
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- Bristol University Press
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- 05 January 2022
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- 03 February 2021, pp 183-186
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Jason knocked on the open door. ‘Todd, we have a problem.’
‘Yeah?’ Todd said, without looking up from his screen.
‘Yeah,’ Cynthia said from the corridor. ‘A massive one.’
Todd shifted his gaze to the doorway. ‘And you are?’
‘Cynthia Jones.’ The young, black woman pushed past Jason, entering the office. ‘And you should be glad I wear a white hat not a black one.’
‘You’re not wearing any hat.’
‘You really are clueless, aren’t you?’ Cynthia said, examining Todd’s bookcases. ‘You’ve no frigging idea the shit you’re in.’
‘I’m sorry, who areyou exactly? And what’s the shit you think we’re in.’
‘I’m the person that discovered that you have my personal details stored in an unencrypted database on an insecure server located somewhere in Idaho. And that some enterprising hacker has put up the entire database for sale on the dark web for $320,000. Or $35,000 for a 10 per cent sample.’
‘What?’
‘Are you slow?’ Cynthia plucked a glass paperweight from a shelf. ‘You are the Chief Operations Officer for this company, right?’
‘What the … How did you get to my office? Jason, get security.’
‘Get security! You’re hilarious. You’re way too late for that.’ Cynthia laughed, placing the paperweight back. ‘About six months too late.’
‘We’ve had a major data breach, Todd,’ Jason said. Cynthia was right, his boss was often slow on the uptake, though never hilarious. ‘She showed me the server and the files and the data auction.’
‘You’re saying someone has stolen our data?’
‘Ding, ding!’ Cynthia crowed. ‘The penny has finally dropped. Yes, genius, someone has stolen your data. But not the shitty data in your app, but the personal data of your customers. Which they’re selling for one cent a record. One cent! Which is a total frigging bargain, except it’s free if folks know where to look. But even if you pay, the buyer is laughing all the way to the bank given they get everything they need to steal an identity and go on a spending spree. You didn’t even hash the frigging credit card details! What kind of amateur operation are you running?’
‘And it’s definitely our data?’ Todd asked, looking at Jason.
‘Yes, it’s your frigging data!’ Cynthia said.
Jason nodded.
‘But it can’t be.’
26 - A Matter of Life and Death
- Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland Maynooth
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- Book:
- Data Lives
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 05 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 03 February 2021, pp 207-218
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Summary
I submitted a first draft of Data Livesto Bristol University Press at the start of February 2020. At the time, the coronavirus pandemic was in its initial phases. News media were highlighting the number of cases and deaths in China and other East Asian countries, and reporting on the delay and containment measures being put in place to try and limit the spread of the virus. While there was uncertainty and complacency in the West, there was also a sense that the virus might sweep around the world in a fashion more akin to Spanish Flu in 1918–20, than SARS in 2002–04 or MERS in 2012–13. The first case had been recorded in the United States on 21 January and in Europe on 24 January, and the World Health Organization had declared a global health emergency on 30 January. While I followed the news stories and viewed the numbers, graphs and maps with interest, the virus and its effects still seemed somewhat distant and otherworldly. I chatted with colleagues about what effect the pandemic might have if the virus got established in Europe and what might be done to prevent this, but it was in passing over coffee and mostly speculative and uninformed. There was little sense that the virus, and data about its circulation and effects, would come to saturate national discourses and everyday conversation within a few short weeks and be thekey driver of public policy and determinant of the bounds of everyday life.
And yet, in May as I write this chapter, the lives of the majority of people on the planet are being thoroughly shaped by data about the virus. In particular, the number of new cases and deaths and the reproduction rate, which are fed into predictive models of disease, are driving public health policy, which is dictating wider sectoral policies, and are informing public and political debate. These data are literally about life and death and they are underpinning decisions of enormous consequence – shutting down all but essential services, limiting movement to only vital trips, cocooning the elderly, supporting the healthcare system, laying off millions of workers, government borrowing to support families and businesses, and shaping the timeline and composition of how restrictions will be lifted.
2 - Blind Data
- Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland Maynooth
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- Book:
- Data Lives
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 05 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 03 February 2021, pp 17-22
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Summary
Emma stared out of the café window at two gulls fighting over a burger carton. She’d no idea what had possessed her to tell her mother that she’d be bringing a date to her sister’s wedding. Or why she’d let Tracey take charge of solving her dilemma, other than the ceremony was in a week’s time and there was no way she was asking one of her exes to play the part.
‘One grande cappuccino.’Julian placed the coffee on the table and slid into the seat opposite. ‘And one black tea.’ He took a sip. ‘Lovely.’
Emma tried not to cringe. They already seemed mismatched. She was wearing a crumpled Joy Division T-shirt, black jeans, and blood red Doc Martins. In contrast, his blue dress shirt and tan chinos were pressed and his white Nikes scuff-free.
She pulled a weak smile. ‘Thanks. So, how do you know Tracey?’
‘School. When she lived in Dublin. You?’
‘University. In London. We shared a bedsit in Crouch End.’
‘You’re thatelectronic engineer?’ Julian laughed.
‘What’s so funny?’
‘Nothing. I mean, you know, she’s told me a few stories. Like how you wired the windows to stop thieves and electrocuted the landlord.’
Emma shook her head. ‘That’s not entirely true. I made some adjustments to an existing system and that creep deserved the shock.’
‘Sounds like I’d better behave myself then.’
‘Always a good idea on a first date, Julian. Any date, really. So, tell me about yourself. What do you do?’ Please be normal, she thought to herself.
‘I’m an anthropologist.’
Emma was reasonably certain she’d caught the eye-roll in time.
‘I work in an interdisciplinary research institute,’ Julian continued. ‘Technology and Society. I study how digital tech is built and used. My thesis examined the politics and praxes of a couple of start-up companies who were developing new apps.’
‘The politics and praxes?’ Emma sighed. Only Tracey would think a preppy anthropologist who saw politics everywhere as a suitable wedding date for her. She was an engineer. Creating an app was code and applied maths.
‘You know, all the pressures shaping how a company operates – raising finance, legal compliance, relationships with investors, in-team relations, trying to create a new market.
25 - Black Data Matter
- Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland Maynooth
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- Book:
- Data Lives
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 05 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 03 February 2021, pp 197-204
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Summary
Alyssa found Michael sitting at the kitchen table.
He held up a couple of letters. ‘Our insurance premium has jumped by a third and they’ll give us the loan we asked for, but only if we pay the top rate of interest. It seems we’re too high-risk. I’d love to see the algorithms and data behind those decisions. You okay?’
‘I’m fine. Tired. I’ve got spreadsheet eyes. And I’ve just had a call from Brandon. He had a visit by the police this morning. Said he’d been identified as a potential pre-criminal by some programme they’ve got. He’s as ornery as a bag full of hornets.’
Michael put the letters down. ‘Pre-criminal? What the hell is that bullshit?’
‘They think he’s either already a criminal and not yet been caught, or he’s at risk of becoming one.’
‘Brandon? He’s training to be a paralegal.’
‘That’s what he told them. But they said that their data indicates he’s related to, or is a friend or known associate of, people who do have a record.’
‘So, if my brother commits a crime, or my old school friends do, I’ll be flagged as a potential criminal? That constitutes warranted suspicion? No actual evidence, just a hunch based on bullshit data? And what is this so-called data? Because it sure as hell doesn’t know anything useful about Brandon; the man acts like a wannabe saint.’
‘He says it was his network of friends on social media linked to arrest records.’
‘Seriously? If I’m friends with someone on Facebook who’s been arrested I’m assumed to be a criminal as well? And the police come and hassle me? You’re his sister and I follow him on Instagram, are we also in this bullshit database?’
‘Look, calm down, honey. They were warning him that they’re keeping an eye on him. It sucks, but …’
‘Calm down? Are they also keeping an eyeon rich white dudes? It’s bullshit, Alyssa. It’s racial profiling dressed up as predictive policing.’
‘I know, but getting mad doesn’t solve anything.’
Michael’s phone started to ring. ‘And nor does ignoring it. Yes, David? … What? … Channel 9.’ He pointed at the television. ‘Dead? What the …’
19 - Guinea Pigs
- Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland Maynooth
-
- Book:
- Data Lives
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 05 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 03 February 2021, pp 153-160
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‘So if this is a testbed district,’ said Mrs Gregory, a middle-aged member of the local community, ‘does that make us guinea pigs?’
The small group were seated round a conference table in an office building in the heart of the city’s docklands.
‘No, no,’ Gavin said, flustered. He’d had high hopes for this meeting but five minutes in and he already felt he was on the back foot. Recently hired as the community liaison officer for the city’s smart docklands team, it had been made clear to him that the key expected outcome was to convince local residents that there was nothing to fear from the trialling of new technologies in their area and to get their buy-in. The last thing the local government or the companies involved needed now the initiative was well underway was community opposition or negative media coverage.
As with many new posts, he’d been hired on a rolling contract with continued employment dependent on performance. If he couldn’t pacify these community leaders and turn their scepticism into support, he could soon be looking for another job. Which would be disastrous given the cost of his rent and his student loans and credit card debts. ‘You’re definitely not guinea pigs.’
‘So, what are we then?’ Mrs Gregory asked.
‘You’re nothing. I mean, not nothing, obviously.’ Gavin glanced nervously at the other five attendees. ‘You’re community stakeholders.’
‘Stakeholders?’
‘In the area.’
‘But not in this so-called smart district?’
‘No, I mean, yes, in the smart city district.’
‘And the purpose of this district is?’ Ms Farrell, a woman in her late twenties, asked.
‘To trial new technologies. It’s a place where companies and local government can test technologies designed to improve city life. It’s all about creating new products and jobs, and enhancing how the city is managed.’
‘What kind of technologies? Nobody asked us about trialling new technologies.’
‘And if this a testbed, then we must be guinea pigs given we live here,’ Mr Logan, an older man, said.
‘Well …’ Gavin started to answer.
‘How long has the area been a testbed?’ Mrs Gregory asked.
‘Well … about three years,’ Gavin said reluctantly, aware of how his answer undermined his mission.
‘Three years?’ Ms Farrell said, her eyebrows shooting up.
‘And you’re only talking to the community now?’ Mrs Gregory said. ‘That doesn’t sound much like being a stakeholder!’