For nearly two decades, dominant internet companies have successfully implemented a new business model that capitalises on the gathering of enormous amounts of personal data about every aspect of our lives. Within this logic of surveillance capitalism (Zuboff, 2019), individuals become objects from which raw material (data) is extracted to enable the selling of predictions of behaviour. Personal data enables personalisation of digital services enticing users to release even more personal data for the benefit of the service provider (Špiranec, Kos & George, 2019), making users increasingly vulnerable to various influences (commercial, political etc.). Data literacy, as a part of information literacy, refers to the ability to “access, interpret, critically assess, manage, handle and ethically use data” (Prado & Marzal, 2013, p. 126). As a way to increase knowledge of how personal data is collected, used and how individuals may take better control over these processes, the not-for-profit Mozilla Foundation has presented an online guide, the Data Detox Kit (DDK), available in several languages. In this study, the DDK is viewed as a window into what influential internet organisations consider important and reasonable for average internet users. Consequently, the DDK can be seen as a contemporary, practical expression of a data literacy expressed in various information activities. This contribution applies a sociomaterial perspective (Orlikowski, 2007), acknowledging the constitutive entanglement of the social and the material, to identify and analyse the information activities described in the DDK.
The DDK is a website (www.datadetoxkit.org) containing 20 pages divided into three main categories: privacy, security and wellbeing. Every page of the DDK-website was downloaded and then closely read, and 105 information activities was identified. After removing duplicates, 65 of these activities were labelled as data-related and included in a qualitative content analysis. Guided by the notion of sociomaterial assemblages (Suchman, 2007), where humans and artefacts enact each other in practices, a thematic analysis showed that information activities related to controlling the gathering of personal data are intimately connected to the tools used for accessing internet. In particular, phones, browsers, search engines, and social media interact with users in different ways affecting how personal data is collected and distributed. Two forms of data literacy are identified and discussed: a re-active mode, focused on removing data already gathered, and a pro-active mode, focused on preventing data from being gathered.
Through this analysis of a practical example of data literacy, it is possible to discuss the role of data in our everyday lives, including the challenging task to manage personal data online. The results of this study place data literacy, as a crucial component of information literacy, in the context of surveillance capitalism. Results also illustrate the extent of personal data gathered by examining the plethora of information activities suggested to individuals interested in taking control over how personal data is collected and used by internet companies. The findings are useful for librarians and teachers who can supplement traditional information literacy instruction with a deeper understanding of data literacy.
Paris: InLitAs – Information Literacy Association , 2021. p. 46-46