More than ever, mass data will be used for election campaigns. The American mathematician Cathy O’neil warns in the DW-Interview of the consequences. In her latest book, she describes how Algorithms for Hiking the democracy.
Larger and larger amounts of data are evaluated for the preparation of election campaigns. The US-American mathematician and critic of the financial industry, Cathy O’Neil is the democracy in danger.
DW: have you always been an enthusiastic mathematician, and have made such a career. But in your book, “attack of the Algorithms. How you manipulate elections, job opportunities and destroy our health” (original title: “Weapons of Math Destruction”) they argue that mathematics, and especially Big Data, can be used as a weapon. When did you have the feeling that this book absolutely must write?
O’neil: In fact, I love mathematics, and my impression was that she is being abused. I wanted to write this book, above all things, so that people know that this abuse is taking place, and on the other, to defend the honor of the mathematics.
But Big Data is nothing New, is it?
The use of Big Data, things to predict, is nothing New. But so far, they have been collected directly and carefully by statisticians through surveys or jobs. It is opinion polls on specific issues were carried out. But nowadays we have no direct data. We recycle data about what people on websites click is what you buy, what you tweet and who your Facebook friends, in order to draw conclusions about things we are interested in. Large data collections promise to us that we learn based on this indirect information with greater accuracy the things that are important to us.
The book of Cathy O’Neil appears at the right time – before the Bundestag elections in 2017
The proponents of Big Data argue that they may help us to improve systems and make information more precise. Or they argue that you can draw from more information, more useful conclusions. But you seem to see it rather the other way around.
I would like to make it clear that I don’t claim that these things [Algorithms] are completely inaccurate. Sometimes they are accurate – and that poses a Problem! What I am saying is that you have to exert a lot of Power, and by most people blind as “correct” will be accepted. I would like to clearly distinguish between accurate and correct. Because of the many people confused. As soon as you know that an algorithm is accurate, to listen, to ask questions.
I’m Worried about Algorithms, which are applicable, but nevertheless destructive, and a secret. For example, those Algorithms that are used for political “micro-Targeting”. Politicians and campaigns in the United States are getting better at it, find out who thinks what about what. In the end you will know more about the voters than the voters on the politicians. In addition, the messages that the campaigns aimed at the voters, less informative and increasingly for propaganda purposes. And that is, their accuracy in Spite of a destructive model, because it is undermining democracy.
You mentioned micro-Targeting, i.e., the use of Big Data to specific voters and groups of voters with messages that are tailored to you. In your book you compare this method with the way a supermarket is going to recruit its customers. Can you explain to us how this works?
I think we should understand that political campaigns, the people in Marketing-drawers presses. You put 30 to 40 people in boxes and define them as they were sold by data markets. Or these drawers are based on the Likes, which have made these people on Facebook. Then you ask the political opinions of these persons. What they have found out that the political views of the people in a given Marketing drawer are relatively stable. That means that you don’t need to know the political views of the people, but only know in which drawer they were plugged in. This is exactly the same procedure, with the supermarkets or companies such as Amazon or Walmart approach. They each have a container for different consumer types.
In her book O’Neil also, as Algorithms in the health sector and are used in the workplace
Politicians have had to sell themselves to the electorate. What is the use of Big Data is so dangerous, that these data threaten democracy?
I think that today there are two big differences, the extent and lack of concern for transparency. It has always been, that politicians say different voters different things. But as journalists dug deeper, and have written about it, if you encountered inconsistencies in political promises. This is no longer possible, as the politicians spread their different messages now on Facebook, and some journalists have their own Facebook access. You don’t get the texts, the receive other people with other profiles to see.
Who wants to send targeted advertising, you must first have personal data. In the US, such data are available and can be used. Germany, by contrast, has much stricter privacy laws – here it is forbidden to collect personal data, process and analyze, without specifying how these data should be used and who will use it. In addition, you need an explicit consent. The German data protection provides some protection, it prevents that this type of micro-Targeting may take place in the German election campaigns?
I would say, Yes and no. What is happening in this relationship in the United States, is certainly much more extreme than what happens here in Germany. In the USA there are, for example, E-Mail lists of individuals who have been identified as probable voters and donors to the Democrats. These lists are passed around, and they are very valuable. In addition, Facebook allows advertisers to send advertising to specific E-mail addresses.
The German data protection laws cannot exclude the possibility of micro-Targeting completely. The digital strategy is not in this country, however, as far as the US presidential elections of 2016.
I don’t think that something like this can happen in Germany. However, I believe that German advertisers should people be allowed to ever address their interests specifically. If this is so, it means that you are circling certain groups to find out what interests correlate with political views. They will not send their political advertising on E-Mail lists or to known lists with the name, but you are addressing people with specific interests, which are thought to correlate with certain political views. Because is not done on a personal level. But the General connection between Marketing-drawers and political views will probably be in Germany just as applicable as in the United States. The question is, how sophisticated this understanding of the German consumer.
The use of Big Data will certainly not stop so quickly. What consequences do you foresee, if Big Data continues to be – as you write be used in your book as a weapon?
I see an increase in Propaganda to such an extent that they threatened the concept of an informed citizenry, a citizenry that chooses, after she has considered considered all the options. You can’t make wise Considerations, if you didn’t get previously real information – and in this political advertisement, no real Information is included. For me, it’s not the end is not in sight, as long as we change the rules.
How could we change the rules, in order to improve the Situation?
I think it’s a step in the right direction would be to bring Facebook to a place to set up where journalists and interested citizens of all political messages can be viewed, which will be shown on this platform – and all of advertising texts, namely, that some of the political advertising texts, at first glance, not a political appearance. Such a measure would make a big difference.
Do you think that we can go from the Position we have already achieved so these social and political divisions – there and back again?
I think we need to! I believe that the consequences of this Situation are evident. I think all of this is in a certain sense, even an existential threat.
An existential threat to whom or what?
For the concept of detectability, for the concept of a shared reality.
The Interview was conducted by Cristina Burack.
Cathy O’neil is the author of “attack of the Algorithms. How you manipulate elections, job opportunities and destroy our health” (original title: “Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy”). By Karsten Petersen from the English translated book is published on 21. August 2017 in the Hanser Verlag. O’neil founded the company recently, a service that the customer offers a Review of Algorithms. Your Blog can see mathbabe.org .
Hanser Verlag, 352 pages, hard cover
ISBN 978-3-446-25668-2
ePUB Format
ISBN 978-3-446-25778-8
https://www.hanser-literaturverlage.de/buch/angriff-der-algorithmen/978-3-446-25668-2/