Influence on humans by GC E-learning

Data

gc_e_learning — 2025-01-09 11:20:38 UTC

Data makes digital services better. Maybe you used a search engine to find this website and you were able to do that because of the big amounts of data on which the search engine is based. But how much data is it OK to collect? About whom? And for what purposes?

Data collection is currently very unequal. There are companies that are built on extracting data from the people using their services and then they sell that data to third parties who use it for political campaigns and advertising. So it’s the company or the government that reap all the benefits, while citizens are left without knowledge or control of their own data and where it ends up.

Automation

gc_e_learning — 2025-01-09 11:21:01 UTC

A lot of processes have been taken over by computers thanks to artificial intelligence and algorithms. The upside of that is that the computers can do those processes faster and with fewer mistakes than us humans. The downside, however, is that computers are not flawless–machines can make mistakes that can be quite significant and have serious consequences for humans.

Think about a self-driving car. If the car’s sensors are malfunctioning because it misreads information about its surroundings, this mistake can potentially cause an accident and kill people.

Behavioural Design

gc_e_learning — 2025-01-09 11:21:23 UTC

Humans are not always rational. We make decisions based on emotions though we like to think of ourselves as rational beings. This means that we are sometimes not fully aware of the dynamics that make us act in a certain way. Behavioural design is used to help users navigate digital services and to make them more user-friendly. In the best case, behavioural design is applied to help people make wise decisions, but in the worst case, behavioural design can be used to manipulate people in directions that are harmful to them–what is sometimes referred to as ‘dark patterns’.

For example, making something fun, easy or rewarding when we spend time online can nudge us to make healthier choices, but it can also make us buy products that we don’t need or spend more time gaming or spend more money gambling. So, knowingly or unknowingly, providers of digital services and tools may pose a risk to the human rights of those that use their services.

That means we have to strike a balance between on the one hand making the most of technology’s possibilities and on the other hand protecting humans. It is fair to say that the balance between utilising the potential of technology and mitigating its harms has not been struck yet–neither by the tech companies and their business models nor by the governments and states attempting to regulate them.