Private lives

146 Pages·2010·0.55 MB·English

Private lives cover 3/10/10 6:05 PM Page 1
This pamphlet is about what people think about the use
of personal information. It sets out the findings of private lives
Demos’ ‘People’s Inquiry into Personal Information’,
revealing the opinions and ideas expressed over 13 hours
of deliberation. Given time and space to reflect on the
use of communications data, targeted advertising and a people’s
the use of medical information, our participants issue a
demanding call for more meaningful ways to give
consent and for stronger regulation to hold data
handlers to their word. inquiry into
The database society is not inherently good or bad.
The best we can hope for is that it is as democratic as
any of the institutions, markets, and regulatory and legal personal
mechanisms that exert power over our lives. But
democratising personal information does not only mean
giving people a voice in the debate. It also means
finding beter ways of listening to what they say. The information
People’s Inquiry into Personal Information demonstrates
how to engage in the conversations that bring personal
information decision making closer to the people it Peter Bradwell
affects.
The ability to gather and use information about
people has increased exponentially over the past
decades. Personal information has become central to the
business models of the digital age; to the management
of government and of state institutions; and to people's
everyday lives and relationships. The rules governing
information use will determine our own power in the
database society and the powers that the state,
businesses and other people have over us. As the
infrastructure of the database society passes through a
formative stage, it is important to understand more
about how in practice the use of personal information is
understood by the people it affects.
Peter Bradwell is a researcher at Demos.
ISBN 978-1-906693-36-7 £10
© Demos 2010
private lives | Peter Bradwell
Private lives cover 3/10/10 6:05 PM Page 2
This project was supported by:
Demos is an independent think-tank focused
on power and politics. We develop and spread
ideas to give people more power over their
own lives. Our vision is of a democracy of
powerful citizens, with an equal stake in
society.
Demos has several core research programmes
in 2010: Capabilities, Citizenship, Security,
Economic Life, Progressive Austerity and
Extremism. We also have two political research
programmes: the Progressive Conservatism
Project and Open Left, investigating the future
of the centre-Right and centre-Left.
In all our work we bring together people from
a wide range of backgrounds to develop ideas
that will shape debate in the UK and beyond,
and engage a broad and diverse audience
worldwide.
Find out more about our work at
www.demos.co.uk.
First published in 2010
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private lives
Peter Bradwell
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Contents
Acknowledgements 7
Foreword
Linda Weatherhead, Consumer Focus 11
Foreword
Christopher Graham, Information Commissioner 15
Public voices in the privacy debate 19
1 Why a People’s Inquiry into Personal
Information? 25
The findings from the people’s inquiry 39
2 The use of communications data 43
3 Targeted advertising 51
4 Medical records 61
5 Meaningful consent, stronger regulation and
transparency 73
6 The inquiry’s ‘calls to action’ 89
Conclusion: Democratising the database
society 103
Appendix A: How the inquiry worked 109
Appendix B: The calls to action in full 115
Appendix C: Attendees of the expert
roundtables 119
Contents
Notes 121
References 133
7
Acknowledgements
This research behind this report has relied on a number of
people’s generosity. First and foremost, many thanks to the 40
members of our people’s inquiry. For their wisdom and
generosity, we owe a similar debt of gratitude to the experts who
gave up their time to help inform the inquiry, braving cold
evenings in London and colder mornings in Bradford: Liam
Curren, Dan Cooper, Sue Cullen, Martin Hoskins, Natalie Hunt,
Alma Whitten, Anna Fielder, Stephen Whitehead, Marlene
Winfield, Michael Keegan, Dr Mohammad Al-Ubaydli, Lizzie
Coles-Kemp and Stephen McCartney.
The development of the people’s inquiry and the analysis
of the results benefited hugely from the input of our steering
group. Many thanks to Professor Charles Raab, Alma Whitten,
Marlene Winfield, Anna Fielder, Nick Stringer, Natalie Hunt
and Paula Bruening for their insight and intelligence throughout
the project. We are also grateful for the ideas and thoughts of the
participants in our three expert roundtables, who are listed in
appendix C. Thanks also to Edgar Whitley for his comments on
the research.
The design of our deliberative methodology was informed
enormously by Tom Flynn from the University of York, who
offered patient and important insights to improve the design of
the inquiry.
At Demos, enormous thanks are owed for the support and
skill of my co-facilitators Dan Leighton and Max Wind-Cowie,
who thought nothing of the unsociable working hours and travel
that running the inquiry involved. A big thank you to Ollie
Haydon-Mulligan who brought insightful enthusiasm to the
analysis of the inquiry transcripts and who played a vital role in
the writing of section 2.
Thanks to Julia Margo for her comments on the report and
to Jamie Bartlett for his support and help with the methodology.
We also built on the foundations of past Demos work, in
particular Perri 6’s rigorous analyses of privacy and Jack Stilgoe’s
work on public engagement in science. Thanks to Becky Gray
for her contribution to the research in its early stages. And a
sincere thank you to Peter Harrington, Beatrice Karol Burks and
Claire Coulier for their patience and skill in guiding the
Acknowledgements
pamphlet through production to its launch and for their help in
communicating the ideas.
And finally, the project would not have been possible
with the very generous support of the Information Com-
missioner’s Office and Consumer Focus. In particular we are
extremely grateful to Stephen McCartney at the Information
Commissioner’s Office and Linda Weatherhead at Consumer
Focus. Both offered invaluable support in helping to get the
project going and brought ideas and enthusiasm throughout.
All errors and omissions are our own.
Peter Bradwell
Demos
March 2010