The rise and risk of psychometrics in political campaigns.
Feb 4 2017
Awareness about these tools lowers their efficiency, drastically. For every click you do, if you think for a millisecond more that there is an intermediary who stands to profit from your interaction - that already changes your attitude. That's most important, that you're aware, that you don't take those tools for granted as free and benevolent. They're not. There are other people observing your interaction and trying to profit from it.
Mathematician Paul-Olivier Dehaye explains how Facebook Likes can be turned into a data-driven psychological profiles used to target political messaging on the individual level, and calls not for a retreat from online platforms that collect data, but towards a political framework that protects the privacy of the information gathered about us.
Paul provided research for the Das Magazin article The Data That Turned the World Upside Down posted at VICE, and wrote the Medium article The (dis)information mercenaries now controlling Trump’s databases.
Interview link via Antidote Zine
Guest
Paul-Olivier Dehaye
Paul-Olivier Dehaye is a mathematician at the University of Zurich working on interoperability tools enabling new forms of collaborative work on mathematical data, knowledge and software. In his spare time, he enjoys litigating (and especially winning!) against multibillion dollar businesses for the defence of his fundamental right to data protection. He is now leveraging that experience as co-founder of PersonalData.IO, a service that helps individuals regain control over their personal data.
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