It's Internet vs Democracy

IllustrationUday MohiteJust two weeks ago a websites personality tests were being widely circulated on the Internet and lauded for its freakishly accurate results by those whod taken it The results validated that the Artificial Intelligence at play it incorporates psychometric research and robust testing techniques was far more precise than any psychologist or mind reader ever known And all it took were a series of choicebased questions that demanded only 12 minutes of your time and the best bit no money of courseJamie BartlettYet when you leaf through Londonbased tech blogger Jamie Bartletts book The People Vs Tech Penguin Random House you realise the many ways in which this test can be hijacked by political parties and advertisers for purposes we have all become only recently aware of thanks to the Cambridge AnalyticaFacebook scandal I wrote this book to shock people admits Bartlett the director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media for thinktank Demos in the UK leaving no room of doubt about his intention That he began writing it seven months ago long before the scandal broke out might probably make him a foreseer of sorts I got lucky with the timing of the book he says in a telephonic interview Although now I am really thinking if it was luck or sound judgement His new book points out to the latterIn The People Vs Tech Bartlett who has previously authored the bestseller The Dark Net presents a musthave guide for citizens of the world on how the Internet is killing democracy With examples and alarming case studies he reveals how the concentration of power data and control over the public space is already affecting our everyday lives and what we can do about it before its too late The Cambridge AnalyticaFacebook scandal is only the tip of the icebergPrivate no moreSocial media platforms he writes are the latest iteration of the behaviourist desire to manage society through scientific observation of the mind via a complete information loop testing products on people getting feedback and redesigning the model Another word for this idea he says is what Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari calls dataism positing that mathematical laws of data apply to humans as well as machines Here he explains how the untold hours youve spent on social media are enough to fill several binders like interests age friends job activity for the social media platform Facebook has partnerships with quietly powerful data brokers like Acxiom which has information on over 500 million active consumers worldwide with thousands of data points per person things like age race sex weight height marital status education level politics buying habits health worries and holidays often scooped up from other shops and records he writes By 2020 he predicts there will be around 50 billion Internetenabled devices four times what there are now and each one hoovering up dataThis means that it is no longer possible to be on social media without having to compromise ones data or privacy At least not really on the big ones says Bartlett You can obviously take measures to increase protection using the privacy settings so that its harder for third parties to access your information But as we all know its very very hard to use the larger social media platforms without giving away at least something There are of course smaller platforms that are built differently that dont give away personal information But they are all very small and not as good convenient or reliableNot all is lost however I dont think its too late to address the issue but I do think its very very urgent now The speed with which these technologies are intruding only means things are speeding up And if we dont act quickly it will become too late Over the last week Bartlett has also ruffled a few feathers closer home especially the Indian National Congress party after footage of his BBC documentary interviewing Cambridge Analytica boss Alexander Nix in his office went viral In the video which the author also shared with us a framed poster of the Congress is seen in Nixs officeEven as rival parties targeted the Congress for their alleged links with Analytica which is currently facing heat for harvesting Facebook data for Donald Trumps 2016 US elections Congress denied any involvement with the firm and alleged that Bartlett had photoshopped the footage Why would I undermine the Congress party Bartlett asks I double and triplechecked the footage and I clearly remember seeing it If you put those two things together there is a strong possibility of Congress reaching out to Analytica for data Why else would Nix have a poster of the party Either he is a supporter or the company has worked with them at some point But I cant say for sureEmploy selfcontrolIrrespective of data breach or not Bartlett says the Internet is working its way at destroying democracy Its like a slowlyunfolding car crash Democracy is being pulled apart thread by thread and its becoming increasingly very hard to notice If the issue isnt addressed immediately its likely that democracy would be in grave danger in the next 15 years he addsAs a starting point Bartlett suggests that users employ selfcontrol He explains how Facebooks autoplay endless scroll and reverse chronological timelines are all sculpted to keep your attention Hordes of us are now members of a zombie army that walks while looking down at our phones and chats to distant disembodied avatars rather than whoever is sitting next to us he writes in the book The tech giants spend millions of dollars to keep users addicted to the Internet he says while pointing out why we have failed to become vocal citizens Plan your personal time and space carefully and the relentless frenetic nature of life online ndash at the cost of your powers of concentration and focus Have switchoff times avoid the checking cycle and never never hit refresh he suggests Governments on the other hand he says should come up with definite laws to counter the unchecked growth of these technological giants They need to show them who is boss he saysThe Electoral Commission for instance must insist that all social media spending by political parties be recorded and shared transparently and be prepared to investigate any misuse of personal data or spending irregularities At one point the tech firms seemed so harmless They were young cool socially very progressive and nobody ever imagined they could have such an impact on democracy But the transformation was so dramatic and sudden that we all sleepwalked into thisAlso ReadTwo Mumbai families take up Sunday middays challenge to go plasticfree for two weeksCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates