[Air-L] Data privacy via the WTO?

[Aram Sinnreich]

Thank you to everyone who has responded to this thread. I value and admire the level of passion and expertise in this community. As I suspected, this “modest proposal” was the tip of an iceberg that goes very deep. While many of you raise concerns about the WTO as the proper venue, for a variety of excellent reasons (e.g. bias against the global south, lowest common denominator politics, questions about whether data is/should be a trade issue), I’m still not aware of any alternative venue that has the same power to make functional trade relations contingent on adherence to a minimum threshold of enforcement. I’ll keep reading, though!

As to the issues surrounding public awareness and agency, yes, I agree, that’s a hugely important dimension of this challenge. My own survey work has shown that there are hidden justice and equity issues buried in this concern, as well — namely, that while nearly every subset of the population shares the same general level of privacy concern, those that have actualy taken some action (e.g. montioring or adjusting their privacy settings on data capitalism websites) tend to be those who are more socially empowered, such as younger adult internet users and the better educated. See the embedded screenshot from a recent talk I gave on this subject for actual crosstab data. Glad to share more.

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Aram Sinnreich (http://aram.sinnreich.com)

Associate Professor
Chair, Communication Studies
American University (http://www.american.edu/soc/)
School of Communication (http://www.american.edu/soc/)

Author (http://j.mp/sinnreich) | Musician (https://dubistry.bandcamp.com/)