Book part:
Freedom and Data Profiling

Author(s): Janssens, Liisa

Abstract

What would happen if a set of algorithms could identify our behaviour and possibly even our thoughts? Such sets of algorithms would drastically change our interactions and relationships as human beings. Today, sets of algorithms can already generate profiles on the basis of data about an individual user. In doing so, an ‘average you’ is mapped; this process is called data profiling. In data profiling, however, lies the risk that human beings will only be seen through conceptions that follow from a system that is guided by probability analyses. At a time when data analyses are increasingly present in our day-to-day reality, we ought to reflect on the question as to whether human beings can completely be categorised on the basis of their data profile, or whether man as ‘the Other’ also contains a mystery that reaches further than these analyses can reach.

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Preferred Citation
BibTex
Janssens, Liisa: Freedom and Data Profiling. In: Janssens, Liisa: The Art of Ethics in the Information Society. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2016, S. 61-66. DOI: 10.25969/mediarep/13396.
@INCOLLECTION{Janssens2016,
 author = {Janssens, Liisa},
 title = {Freedom and Data Profiling},
 year = 2016,
 doi = {10.25969/mediarep/13396},
 editor = {Janssens, Liisa},
 address = {Amsterdam},
 booktitle = {The Art of Ethics in the Information Society},
 pages = {61--66},
 publisher = {Amsterdam University Press},
}
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