Peer reviewed

The technology of collective memory and the normativity of truth

Diane P Michelfelder, Natasha McCarthy & David E. Goldberg (eds.), Philosophy and Engineering: Reflections on Practice, Principles and Process, 279-290

2013

Themes: Memory

Category: Book chapter, Peer reviewed

Neither our evolutionary past, nor our pre-literate culture, has prepared humanity for the use of technology to provide records of the past, records which in many contexts become normative for memory. The demand that memory be true, rather than useful or pleasurable, has changed our social and psychological self-understanding. The current vogue for lifelogging, and the rapid proliferation of digital memory-supporting technologies, may accelerate this change, and create dilemmas for policymakers, designers and social thinkers.

Zuckerberg’s cave: smartness and discipline in digital modernity

Dariusz Brzezinsky, Kamil Filipek, Kuba Piwowar & Malgorzata Winiarska-Brodowska (eds.), Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence and Beyond: Theorizing Society and Culture of the 21st Century, 72-88

2024

Themes: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Digital modernity

Category: Book chapter, Peer reviewed

This chapter discusses some of the narratives or imaginaries that help structure our experience of, and the development of, the technological suite that mediates the affordances of social life in wealthy Western societies (and increasingly in less wealthy ones, and elsewhere than the West) in the 2020s. It argues that, far from society having transcended modernity to become postmodern, modernity has evolved, from the ‘high’ or ‘reflexive’ modernity of the late 20th century to a characteristic digital modernity. The chapter draws out some of its consequences, sketching its four institutional dimensions. Its disciplinary stance towards individuals gives rise to a myth which is termed Zuckerberg’s Cave, which is compared to the pre-modern cave of Plato, as well as analogous myths of modernity. The realistic prospects of digital modernity are assessed, setting out both its practical risks and its attractions to citizens and policymakers alike.

On blockchains and the General Data Protection Regulation

EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum

2018

Co-authors: Luis-Daniel Ibáñez, Elena Simperl

Themes: Blockchain/cryptocurrency, Data protection

Category: Open access, Peer reviewed, White paper/report

In this paper, we review the legal and technological state of play of the GDPR-Blockchain relationship. Next, we analyse three interaction scenarios between data subjects and blockchain systems, and propose possible ways of achieving GDPR compliance by using state of the art technologies. Finally we review current efforts in the use of blockchains to enforce GDPR principles, in particular ‘Data Protection by Design’.

Data-driven government: the triumph of Thatcherism or the revenge of society?

Antony Mullen, Stephen Farrall & David Jeffery (eds), Thatcherism in the 21st Century: The Social and Cultural Legacy, 55-73

2020

Themes: Conservatism, Digital modernity

Category: Book chapter, Peer reviewed

Margaret Thatcher’s statement that ‘there is no such thing as society’ has overshadowed Conservative Party politics since the 1980s, and has been the subject of exegesis and attempts at repudiation ever since. This chapter considers the statement in the context of Angus Maude’s critique of ‘society’ as a statistical abstraction, which comes, erroneously, to be taken as an agent in its own right, able to take on the responsibilities of individuals to their communities and ‘little platoons’, and ultimately to become the end of policy itself. This digital modernity, nascent in Maude’s and Thatcher’s day, is becoming increasingly influential, thanks to data-based policy and data-driven agency. The chapter argues that Maude’s subtler analysis still yields a conservative critique of digital modernity, whereas the less nuanced neoliberal individualism valorised by Thatcher may be seen as one of its enablers.

The future of social Is personal: the potential of the Personal Data Store

Daniele Miorandi, Vincenzo Maltese, Michael Rovatsos, Anton Nijholt & James Stewart (ed.), Social Collective Intelligence: Combining the Powers of Humans and Machines to Build a Smarter Society, 125-158

2014

Co-authors: Max Van Kleek

Themes: Computing/The Internet, Privacy

Category: Book chapter, Peer reviewed

This chapter argues that technical architectures that facilitate the longitudinal, decentralised and individual-centric personal collection and curation of data will be an important, but partial, response to the pressing problem of the autonomy of the data subject, and the asymmetry of power between the subject and large scale service providers/data consumers. Towards framing the scope and role of such Personal Data Stores (PDSs), the legalistic notion of personal data is examined, and it is argued that a more inclusive, intuitive notion expresses more accurately what individuals require in order to preserve their autonomy in a data-driven world of large aggregators. Six challenges towards realising the PDS vision are set out: the requirement to store data for long periods; the difficulties of managing data for individuals; the need to reconsider the regulatory basis for third-party access to data; the need to comply with international data handling standards; the need to integrate privacy-enhancing technologies; and the need to future-proof data gathering against the evolution of social norms. The open experimental PDS platform INDX is introduced and described, as a means of beginning to address at least some of these six challenges.

Big data, consequentialism and privacy

Kevin Macnish & Jai Galliott (eds.), Big Data and Democracy, 13-26

2020

Themes: Digital modernity

Category: Book chapter, Peer reviewed

This chapter applies a Weberian analysis to developments in big data. O’Hara argues that just as Weber noted a move from the pre-modern to the modern with the advent of bureaucracy, so we are now entering a time of digital modernity. The focus in digital modernity is less the present (what is happening now) as the subjunctive (what could happen), governed by data. This, he argues, gives data a central role in governing for both good and ill.

Social machines as an approach to group privacy

Linnet Taylor, Luciano Floridi & Bart van der Sloot (eds.), Group Privacy: New Challenges of Data Technologies, 101-122

2016

Co-authors: Dave Robertson

Themes: Privacy, Social machines

Category: Book chapter, Peer reviewed

This chapter introduces the notion of social machines as a way of conceptualising and formalising the interactions between people and private networked technology for problem-solving. It is argued that formalisation of such ‘social computing’ will generate requirements for information flow within social machines and across their boundaries with the outside world. These requirements provide the basis for a notion of group privacy that is neither derivative from the idea of individual privacy preferences, nor founded in political or moral argument, but instead related to the integrity of the social machine and its capabilities for bottom-up problem-solving. This notion of group privacy depends on a particular technological setup, and is not intended to be a general definition, but it has purchase in the context of pervasive technology and big data which has made the question of group privacy pressing and timely.

The digitally extended self: a lexicological analysis of personal data

Journal of Information Science, 44(4), 552-565

2017

Co-authors: Brian Parkinson, David E. Millard, Richard Giordano

Themes: Privacy

Category: Journal article, Open access, Peer reviewed

Individuals’ privacy, especially with regard to their personal data, is increasingly an area of concern as people interact with a wider and more pervasive set of digital services. Unfortunately, the terminology around personal data is used inconsistently, the concepts are unclear and there is a poor understanding of their relationships. This is a challenge to those who need to discuss personal data in precise terms, for example, legislators, academics and service providers who seek informed consent from their users. In this article, we present a lexicological analysis of the terms used to describe personal data, use this analysis to identify common concepts and propose a model of the digitally extended self that shows how these concepts of personal data fit together. We then validate the model against key publications and show in practice how it can be used to describe personal data in three scenarios. Our work shows that there is no clearly delineated kernel of personal data, but rather that there are layers of personal data, with different qualities, sources and claims of ownership, which extend out from the individual and form the digitally extended self.

Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013)

Mark Garnett (ed.), Conservative Moments: Reading Conservative Texts, London: Bloomsbury, 127-136

2018

Themes: Conservatism, Conservative Party

Category: Book chapter, Open access, Peer reviewed

This chapter explores three questions. First, what is the nature of Thatcher’s political philosophy, and in particular the uncompromising statement that ‘there is no such thing as society’? Second, can we judge whether her policies in office were consistent with a tenable understanding of conservatism? Third, can we trace some of the antecedents of her thinking, and place her, tentatively at least, within a tradition?

Functional anonymisation: personal data and the data environment

Computer Law and Security Review, 34(2), 204-221

2018

Co-authors: Mark Elliot, Charles Raab, Christine M. O'Keefe, Elaine Mackey, Chris Dibben, Heather Gowans, Kingsley Purdam, Karen Mc Cullagh

Themes: Data anonymisation

Category: Journal article, Peer reviewed

Anonymisation of personal data has a long history stemming from the expansion of the types of data products routinely provided by National Statistical Institutes. Variants on anonymisation have received serious criticism reinforced by much-publicised apparent failures. We argue that both the operators of such schemes and their critics have become confused by being overly focused on the properties of the data itself. We claim that, far from being able to determine whether data is anonymous (and therefore non-personal) by looking at the data alone, any anonymisation technique worthy of the name must take account of not only the data but also its environment.

This paper proposes an alternative formulation called functional anonymisation that focuses on the relationship between the data and the environment within which the data exists (the data environment). We provide a formulation for describing the relationship between the data and its environment that links the legal notion of personal data with the statistical notion of disclosure control. Anonymisation, properly conceived and effectively conducted, can be a critical part of the toolkit of the privacy-respecting data controller and the wider remit of providing accurate and usable data.

Avoiding omnidoxasticity in logics of belief: a reply to MacPherson

Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, 36(3), 475-495

1995

Co-authors: Han Reichgelt, Nigel Shadbolt

Themes: Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Category: Journal article, Open access, Peer reviewed

In recent work MacPherson argues that the standard method of modeling belief logically, as a necessity operator in a modal logic, is doomed to fail. The problem with normal modal logics as logics of belief is that they treat believers as “ideal” in unrealistic ways (i.e., as omnidoxastic); however, similar problems re-emerge for candidate non-normal logics. The authors argue that logics used to model belief in artificial intelligence (AI) are also flawed in this way. But for AI systems, omnidoxasticity is impossible because of their finite nature, and this fact can be exploited to produce operational models of fallible belief. The relevance of this point to various philosophical views about belief is discussed.

Why should I? Cybersecurity, the security of the state and the insecurity of the citizen

Politics and Governance, 6(2), 41-48

2018

Co-authors: Lizzie Coles-Kemp, Debi Ashenden

Themes: Cybersecurity, Society

Category: Journal article, Open access, Peer reviewed

Assumptions are made by government and technology providers about the power relationships that shape the use of technological security controls and the norms under which technology usage occurs. We present a case study carried out in the North East of England that examined how a community might work together using a digital information sharing platform to respond to the pressures of welfare policy change. We describe an inductive consideration of this highly local case study before reviewing it in the light of broader security theory. By taking this approach we problematise the tendency of the state to focus on the security of technology at the expense of the security of the citizen. From insights gained from the case study and the subsequent literature review, we conclude that there are three main absences not addressed by the current designs of cybersecurity architectures. These are absences of: consensus as to whose security is being addressed, evidence of equivalence between the mechanisms that control behaviour, and two-way legibility. We argue that by addressing these absences the foundations of trust and collaboration can be built which are necessary for effective cybersecurity. Our consideration of the case study within the context of sovereignty indicates that the design of the cybersecurity architecture and its concomitant service design has a significant bearing on the social contract between citizen and state. By taking this novel perspective new directions emerge for the understanding of the effectiveness of cybersecurity technologies.

Conservatism then and now: review of Scruton, Conservatism

Cosmos + Taxis, 6(3-4), 45-51

2019

Themes: Conservatism

Category: Book review, Peer reviewed

A review of Roger Scruton’s Conservatism: An Invitation to the Great Tradition, arguing that while Scruton’s historical discussion is illuminating, situating conservatism in dialogue with liberalism, his agenda for taking conservatism forward, involving a focus on political correctness and religious extremism, is very limited, not only ignoring a number of other very serious political issues, but also failing to speak to the concerns of non-conservatives.

Memories for life: a review of the science and technology

Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 3(8), 351-365

2006

Co-authors: Richard Morris, Nigel Shadbolt, Graham J. Hitch, Wendy Hall, Neil Beagrie

Themes: Memory

Category: Journal article, Open access, Peer reviewed

This paper discusses scientific, social and technological aspects of memory. Recent developments in our understanding of memory processes and mechanisms, and their digital implementation, have placed the encoding, storage, management and retrieval of information at the forefront of several fields of research. At the same time, the divisions between the biological, physical and the digital worlds seem to be dissolving. Hence, opportunities for interdisciplinary research into memory are being created, between the life sciences, social sciences and physical sciences. Such research may benefit from immediate application into information management technology as a testbed. The paper describes one initiative, memories for life, as a potential common problem space for the various interested disciplines.

Conservatism, epistemology, and value

The Monist, 99(4), 423-440

2017

Themes: Conservatism

Category: Journal article, Peer reviewed

A series of recent papers has discussed whether conservatism has a distinct set of values (substantive), or whether it consists in an attitude to shared values (adjectival). This paper argues that adjectival conservatism is a genuine type of conservatism, consistent with the Burkean tradition, in accordance with the idea that conservatism is concerned with change, and arguable using public reason. A version of adjectival conservatism derived from epistemological scepticism, consisting of a knowledge principle and a change principle, is presented. It is shown to (a) be resistant to arguments that adjectival conservatism is not a genuine type of conservatism, and (b) contain a distinct ideological programme, and not be restricted to a mere commentary on the activities of other ideologues.

The conservative reaction to data-driven agency

Mireille Hildebrandt & Kieron O'Hara (eds.), Life and the Law in the Era of Data-Driven Agency, 175-193

2020

Co-authors: Mark Garnett

Themes: Conservatism, Digital modernity

Category: Book chapter, Peer reviewed

Political issues pertaining to data-driven agency and the use of ‘big data’ to make decisions about people’s lives are usually seen through the lens of liberalism. A conservative examination of data-driven agency requires a different lens. This chapter adopts the perspective of evolving modernity. It considers the philosophy of three major conservative thinkers, Edmund Burke, Alexis de Tocqueville and Michael Oakeshott, in the context of the problematisation of big data contained in Mireille Hildebrandt’s Smart Technologies and the End(s) of Law. Present-day conservatives need to rethink their traditional antipathy to the state, reverting to a Burkean understanding of the public-private distinction, and also to revise views of individual agency in the face of the facilitation of collective agency by networked digital technology.

Linked data in government

IEEE Internet Computing, 17(4), 72-77

2013

Co-authors: Nigel Shadbolt

Themes: Semantic Web/linked data, Transparency/open data

Category: Journal article, Peer reviewed

Government data is powerful, plentiful, and relevant to citizens’ concerns. Making it open supports transparency, crowdsourcing data enhancement, and innovative service development. The authors review the state of linked open government data, in the context of the potential for the publishing organizations and the Linked Data Web itself, as well as the administrative and political issues raised.

Lifelogging: privacy and empowerment with memories for life

Identity in the Information Society, 1(2), 155-172

2009

Co-authors: Mischa M. Tuffield, Nigel Shadbolt

Themes: Memory

Category: Journal article, Open access, Peer reviewed

The growth of information acquisition, storage and retrieval capacity has led to the development of the practice of lifelogging, the undiscriminating collection of information concerning one’s life and behaviour. There are potential problems in this practice, but equally it could be empowering for the individual, and provide a new locus for the construction of an online identity. In this paper we look at the technological possibilities and constraints for lifelogging tools, and set out some of the most important privacy, identity and empowerment-related issues. We argue that some of the privacy concerns are overblown, and that much research and commentary on lifelogging has made the unrealistic assumption that the information gathered is for private use, whereas, in a more socially-networked online world, much of it will have public functions and will be voluntarily released into the public domain.

Explainable AI and the philosophy and practice of explanation

Computer Law and Security Review, 39, 105474

2020

Themes: Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Category: Journal article, Peer reviewed

Considerations of the nature of explanation and the law are brought together to argue that computed accounts of AI systems’ outputs cannot function on their own as explanations of decisions informed by AI. The important context for this inquiry is set by Article 22(3) of GDPR. The paper looks at the question of what an explanation is from the point of view of the philosophy of science – i.e. it asks not what counts as explanatory in legal terms, or what an AI system might compute using provenance metadata, but rather what explanation as a social practice consists in, arguing that explanation is an illocutionary act, and that it should be considered as a process, not a text. It cannot therefore be computed, although computed accounts of AI systems are likely to be important inputs to the explanatory process.

Semantic Web

Robert A. Meyers (ed.), Computational Complexity: Theory, Techniques, and Applications, New York: Springer, 2810-2829

2011

Co-authors: Wendy Hall

Themes: Semantic Web/linked data

Category: Book chapter, Peer reviewed

Encyclopaedia article about the Semantic Web, containing a Glossary and a Definition of the Subject, together with discussions of: Linking Data; The Layered Model of the Semantic Web; Applications; Controversies; and Future Directions.

Linked open government data: lessons from data.gov.uk

IEEE Intelligent Systems, 27(3), 16-24

2012

Co-authors: Nigel Shadbolt, Tim Berners-Lee, Nicholas Gibbins, Hugh Glaser, Wendy Hall, mc schraefel

Themes: Semantic Web/linked data, Society, Transparency/open data

Category: Journal article, Peer reviewed

A project to extract value from open government data contributes to the population of the linked data Web with high-value data of good provenance.

The contradictions of digital modernity

AI & Society, 35(1), 197-208

2018

Themes: Computing/The Internet, Digital modernity

Category: Journal article, Open access, Peer reviewed

This paper explores the concept of digital modernity, the extension of narratives of modernity with the special affordances of digital networked technology. Digital modernity produces a new narrative which can be taken in many ways: to be descriptive of reality; a teleological account of an inexorable process; or a normative account of an ideal sociotechnical state. However, it is understood that narratives of digital modernity help shape reality via commercial and political decision-makers, and examples are given from the politics and society of the United Kingdom. The paper argues that digital modernity has two dimensions, of progression through time and progression through space, and these two dimensions can be in contradiction. Contradictions can also be found between ideas of digital modernity and modernity itself, and also between digital modernity and some of the basic pre-modern concepts that underlie the whole technology industry. Therefore, digital modernity may not be a sustainable goal for technology development.

Personalisation and digital modernity: deconstructing the myths of the subjunctive world

Utal Kohl & Jacob Eisler (eds.), Data-Driven Personalisation in Markets, Politics and Law, 37-54

2021

Themes: Computing/The Internet, Digital modernity

Category: Book chapter, Open access, Peer reviewed

In this chapter, I discuss the role of personalisation in a wider narrative of the development of democratic societies, in terms of digital modernity, driven by a vision of data-driven innovation over networked structures facilitating socio-environmental control. This chapter deals with narratives of how modernity plays out and is implemented by institutions and technologies, which are inevitably partial, and selective in what they foreground and ignore. It begins with a discussion of digital modernity, showing how data-driven personalisation is central to it, and how privacy not only loses its traditional role as a support for individuality, but becomes a blocker for the technologies that will realise the digitally modern vision. The chapter develops the concept of the subjunctive world, in which individuals’ choices are replaced by what they would have chosen if only they had sufficient data and insight. Furthermore, the notions of what is harmful for the individual, and the remedies that can be applied to these, become detached from the individual’s lived experience, and reconnected, in the policy space, to the behaviour and evolution of models of the individual and his or her environment.

Burkean conservatism, legibility and populism

Journal of Political Ideologies, 26(1), 81-100

2020

Themes: Conservatism, Politics

Category: Journal article, Open access, Peer reviewed

Links have sometimes been drawn between conservatism and populism, but the radical nature of the latter, focused on change as a direct end, means that they cannot be connected so easily. This article argues that nevertheless, conservative thinking of the Burkean tradition can be used to understand, and possibly address, populist concerns. This is not because conservatism is biased towards the status quo – the conservative argues, on the contrary, that innovators, whether rationalist or populist, undervalue the status quo, and are therefore biased against it. Rather, the conservative values the legibility of a person’s society or culture to that person, and diagnoses many populist grievances as resulting from innovation making society less legible to the individuals within it.