1

Eng 105
Sec: 20

Research Paper
People’s perspective on Data Rights being considered as Human Rights

Submitted To:
Ms. Shapla Parveen
Lecturer
Department of English
Northsouth University

Submitted By:

Samin Yasar Chowdhury

ID: 17711811630

Submission Date: 21st December, 2019

 2

Acknowledgements

First of all, I would like to thank God for giving the opportunity to live in this

beautiful world. If it wasn’t for Him, I wouldn’t have been living and I wouldn’t have

been able to carry out this research either.

Then, I have to thank my English teacher Ms. Shapla Parveen for providing me with the
necessary guidelines to carry out this research. I thought this research paper would be very
difficult and I bet it would have been a disaster if it wasn’t for her. Her constant support was
always there, and I wish her all the best.

Next, I thank the students whom I’ve interviewed. They had very different and unique
perspectives. They really did provide me with a lot of invaluable and useful information
regarding my research.

Also, this paper was inspired by a Netflix Documentary called the “Great Hack”. I would like to
thank the creators of that documentary.

And of course, I would have to thank my friends and family for their constant support. They
have been very caring to me and have been there for me whenever I needed them. Every time I
felt this research was too stressful and that I couldn’t possibly finish this in time, they came to
my aid and cheered me up. I really am very grateful to them!
 3

Table of Content

Abstract…………………………………………………4

Introduction and Background …………………………..5-7

Research Questions ……………………………………..8

Hypothesis ……………………………………………....9

Research Methodology ………………………………….10

Data presentation and Analysis …………………………11-21

Research Finding………………………………………. 22

Recommendations…………………………………… …23

Conclusion………………………………………………24

Research Reference …………………………………….25

 4

Abstract

The Information age has brought many groundbreaking technologies and systems that have

empowered and enhanced the lives of billions of people. The gathering of information and also

the fast content sharing has shaped our modern world into a very effective informed society. But

what we don’t often think about are the drawbacks of these systems. We are so blinded by the

amazingness of the gifts of the internet that we often forget what is happening behind the scenes.

As we have accepted these technologies into our lives and are using it every day, we are creating

online by-products. These by-products are called data and meta-data. All of these data collected

about us through our usage of these online products can be used to persuade our opinions and to

personally target us for brand placement. We are leaving behind imprints of ourselves on the

servers of these online services by using them daily. From what movies and food we like to

which party we support in our elections, all of these information are embedded in our digital

imprints. Since our data can describe so accurately who we are and what we want it makes sense

to suggest that we should have the right to decide how our data is being used in various online

services, that we should have the power to manage our own data. This is what we call Data

Rights. The ownership of our data and meta-data. And since the use of misuse of our data can

have massive effects on our lives and the whole society it also makes sense to make the

suggestion to consider Data Rights as basic Human Rights.

 5

Introduction

Each one of us no matter who we are or where we are from is entitled to the same universal basic

rights and freedoms. These rights are not privileges and they cannot be granted or revoked. In

1948 the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As our

society and culture have evolved this declaration was further updated and corrected. Now as we

have entered the Information Age our society is going through another massive change. Just like

we have the right to own our homes and have the freedom to start businesses, we should also

have the right to own and willingly distribute our digital data that we are creating everyday as we

browse the internet. But currently the way the internet infrastructure is designed the general

people don’t even know what data is being collected on them and even if they do they have no

idea how it is being used by companies and the government. Our online data is a valuable asset

in the information age. It can tell how we behave and who we are as a person. This information

is proven to be very useful for marketing purposes and even to start movements and promote

political agendas. Since we are the ones who are creating our online data we should have the

right to its ownership as well. We should have the right to decide how much personal data we

want to be exposed and what those data should be. Just like the rights listed in the UN

Declaration, this should also be considered as a fundamental human right.

 6

Background

In 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada heard an appeal in a criminal case in which the accused

had been charged with theft of a list of names and contact information. In acquitting him, the

Supreme Court ruled that information could not be stolen; the crime of theft requires a person to

take something away from another person. In this case, one party acquired information held by

another without actually depriving them of it. The decision highlights some of the challenges

raised by thinking about ownership of information or data.

Thirty four years later we live in a big data environment where information is everything and the

ownership of it is a real issue. User data is being monetized by the biggest companies in the

world and the public is slowly starting to understand the importance of their online data.

It all started when American whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked classified information on

the National Security Agency in 2013 (Greenwald, 2013), after that people’s perspective on

technologies and data mining weren't the same. The public started to realize that the everyday

technologies are not just empowering our lives, it has a whole other darker side. And that darker

side got revealed even more when technology giant Google was hacked (Rhodman, 2014), and 5

million people’s accounts were compromised. It was then the public started to understand what

would happen if more of these tech companies got hacked, or even worse if the companies

themselves misuse the user information for profit. The social media companies like Facebook

and Twitter adds another dimension to this problem. Not only can these companies get hacked,
 7

their platforms can be used to spread disinformation as well. The most alarming fact is that these

disinformations are targeted to specific users, so users can be easily persuaded with their version

of personalised fake news. This is exactly what happened in 2018 when Cambridge Analytica

exploited millions of Facebook user’s data (Rosenberg, 2018), and helped the Trump Campaign

win the 2018 American election by targeting persuadable Facebook users and spreading

disinformation about opposition candidate Hillary Clinton. After this devastating leak the

concept of Data Rights became ever more popular. People started to raise questions about the

accountability of these large technology companies and the regulation of their own online data.

Governance of data became a huge talking point.

 8

Research Questions

The primary focus of this research paper was to know where people stand when it comes to data

and privacy issues. This paper also strive to uncover if people want the ownership of their data or

not, how much do they care about their online data and so on. Below are the questions that were

used to retrieve research information.

● How much are people worried about their online data?

● How do people want control over their data?

● How would people sacrifice the quality of these online services to have full control over

your data?

● How would people want the technology companies to be more transparent about their

data policies?
 9

Hypothesis

I am assuming that most of the participants of the survey will be worried about their personal

information being tracked but don’t know what to do about it. Also I am confident that although

people are concerned about the misuse of their data they will not sacrifice the free business

model of these tech companies to have full control of their personal data. I am hypothesizing that

majority of the people are aware of the importance of their own personal data and would like to

have the rights to their information.

This research will hopefully prove that people don’t trust the online services they use every day

with their own data. It will also prove that people are aware of the fact that these social media

platforms are being used to spread misinformation and propaganda.

Lastly I am assuming that people will express the need to change the current online ecosystem.

They would like the technology companies to be more transparent, although they will have little

hope that that will ever happen.

 10

Research Methodology

I surveyed a group of randomly selected people for my primary research. People who

participated in the survey was picked completely randomly regardless of age, gender and

religion. The research questions were aimed to prove the hypothesis including demographic

questions at the beginning of the questionnaire. The questions were designed to go from the topic

of privacy and trust to data rights and data ownership. The order of the questions were carefully

designed so that the progression towards the end of the survey feels smooth and logical. The

questions asked in the survey are mostly multiple choice questions with one open ended

questions at the end prompting the participant of the survey to give some final thoughts. The

survey was carried out on random people on the 14th of December 2019. All of the

questionnaires returned complete.

For the secondary research two of the most well known news source was used The Guardian and

The NewYork Times as well as some sentimental analysis were done on social media during the

period of the data breaches to understand people’s emotions during those times. Furthermore a

handful full of research papers were analyzed and read on the topic to better understand the

situation.
 11

Data Presentation and Analysis

The Male to Female ratio is close to equal in my survey which enabled the responses to be

gender unbiased.
 12

As we can see, majority of the participants were between 20 to 30 years old and few participants

were above 40
 13

Straightaway in the first question the participant’s sentiment is tested towards the social media

companies. Majority of the people (46.2%) Moderately agreed that social media does spread

disinformation and propaganda. 30.8% of the participants said that they Strongly agree with the

statement. 15.7% of the participants moderately disagreed proving the fact that a lot of people

are still unaware of the wrongdoings of these large companies. And only 7.7% of the people

Strongly Disagreed with the statement. A little cross checking the age of this 7.7% indicated that

they are all above the age of 40, indicating that people in that age group are very unaware.
 14

This question was meant to test how involved the person is in online activities. A higher number

of social media apps will clearly tell how much they are invested and how many channels are

they giving their online data to.The data collected clearly suggests that the majority of the people

are using 3 or more social m

edia apps. These apps include messaging apps also. Approximately 44 % of the people who took

part in the survey uses 3 apps. The same percentage is also true for 4 or more apps. People are

deeply involved in these apps. Furthermore the 11% that uses two apps are all above the age of

40. So it can be said that the use of these apps are more prevalent among young people. I am

assuming they are using the usual suspects as their social media apps, Facebook, Messenger,

Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp and so on

 15

This question was aimed to test if the users of the online services trust or even care about their

data on the hands of these large companies. This helps us understand what proportion of people

are aware of the misuse and wrongdoings of these social media companies. The majority of the

participants(50%) answered that “I don’t have much personal online data so it does not matter”

This was exactly the expectation when I was writing the options for these questions. People think

their not significant in the online world, this cannot be far from the truth. Every person is

influenced by marketing and so these social media companies collect data on everybody. Even if

the person does not have an account on the platform (Quoding, 2018). 33% said “No, because I

think it is going to be misused.

 16

This is a question about these social media companies business model. It is aimed at testing if

people think it is ok to reap monetary gains from their personal data, which is exactly these large

companies are doing. A staggering 58% of the participants said “I do but only if its done after

taking consent” which indicated that majority of the people do not think it is wrong to monetize

user data, however it is wrong to do it without permission. Few people were strongly against the

monetization of personal data ( 16.7%). And 25% of the participants said they are somewhat

skeptical and they think personal data is used unethically to for monetization, again just like the

previous question it is observed that a lot of people do not trust the services they are so closely

tied to.
 17

This is the first question that addresses the concept of data rights to the participants. After asking

several questions to understand what relationship people have with their used social media

services and getting to know that many people don't trust these companies with their personal

data, this is the right time to test how much people want control over their online data. And the

participants responded as predicted. Approximately 54.5% of them said they do want data rights

but they also want the services to remain free. Equal percentage of the people(18.2%) said that

they care they do not care about their data and also they want the services to be free regardless.

Only 9.1% of the participants said they are willing to pay for a service that gives them the

ownership of their data, Indicating a strong desire for data rights.

 18

This question again tests how much the participants value the ownership of their data. Asking if

they would switch to a service that gives them data privacy and rights, the participants again

responded as expected. 43.8% of the participants said they will not switch for the simple reason

because their friends are not in that platform. This is exactly why the social media companies are

so powerful they have trapped their users and their friends in this cycle. 25 % of the people said

they would switch if the service is better or even the same, indicating that a fair amount of the

participants of these surveys care deeply about their personal data and the ownership of it. 18.8

% of the people are deeply attached to their respective social media platforms and are not willing

to switch because the data rights concept according to them is not an added feature that gives

them value. Again 12.5 % of the people deeply care about data rights and will definitely switch

to a service that give data rights.

 19

Again this question tests the value people give to their personal data. This question asked if the

service really that worth it to sacrifice personal data. 50% of the participants said that they

moderately agree. These services are really good and does add a lot of value to people’s lives.

Equal percentage of people (10%) strongly agree and strongly disagreed. And 30% of the

participants moderately disagreed indicating that they don't think these services are worth the

cost of giving away personal informatio

n.
 20

This question asks the participants if it would be beneficial if technology companies were more

transparent about their data collection and distribution methods. And as expected the majority of

the people ( 50%) said that it would be beneficial. 30 % of the people were realistic and said

companies will never do that. And 20 % of the people said companies transparency will not

benefit them in any way.

 21

And to finally end the survey I asked about the assumptions people had about why the

technology companies were not being transparent about their data policies. 45.5 % of the people

said these policies and methods might be unethical and the user’s might not like it. 27.3 % of the

participants said that they believe the social media companies are collecting extremely personal

data about their users, hence the secrecy. 18.2% of the people said if the users got informed

about the various tactics companies use to collect and use their personal data it would be harder

for the companies and the advertisers to persuade and nudge the users. And only 9.1 % of the

participants said that these methods are proprietary and companies are hiding it to protect their

businesses.
 22

Research Findings

The results of the survey closely resonated with my initial hypothesis that people care about their

online data but not as much to boycott the online services that are mining their personal data and

reaping benefits from it. As stated by my hypothesis majority people are more aware of the

importance of data and do want their ownership and right to their data.

An interesting thing I observed in my research is that people who are over 40 year of age very

strongly trust these social media companies and they are not at all bothered by their online data

rights. They do not at all think that these platforms are being used to spread disinformation

which indicates that they trust the contents that these social media companies share too. As the

age gets progressively higher the participants are progressively unaware about their online data

rights and the importance of it.

This research proves that these social media companies are under scrutiny by the people but the

people are helpless because the services these companies provide the likes of Facebook and

Google are closely intertwined with their lives. It is hard to live without these services in this

modern age. And that is why, although they are doing shady things with user data, users have no

choice but to keep on using these services because they are so important
 23

Recommendations

One way to solve some of the limitations the current online service infrastructure would be to

think instead about a conceptual foundation of a bundle of data rights. Individuals should have

rights over data that is about them. This does not necessarily require that they have control over

data in the same ways that individuals have control over property that they own. Rather,

individuals might have a right to data about them being used in only fair and reasonable ways, or

a right to have personal information anonymised in any aggregation that is publicly available.

This approach may have significant power because it builds on a sophisticated and nuanced body

of thought that is well-suited to considering fairness, balance and tradeoffs. Furthermore, rights

are generally well-understood, which might go some way towards addressing the difficulties in

communication on data issues. Additionally, a rights-based approach helps to ensure at least a

minimum degree of equality, which in turn underpins the need to ensure that the system of data

management is fair.

A further benefit of taking this approach is that it requires careful thought about

corollary duties. However, existing conceptions of human rights are highly individualised in their

orientation and were not devised with data in mind. So it is up to the youth to be creative and

devise a way to make the current infrastructure of the internet more careful about the user data

and should regulate the online services to be more human centered so that users can participate in

the data distribution process and have ownership of their data

 24

Conclusion

In this modern era online privacy and protection is as important as real life privacy. The

ecosystem today is benefitting the corporations which is enabling them to create monopolies and

to grow even stronger. Governments and community leaders should come together to solve this

issue of data privacy and should push forward to make data right a fundamental human right.
 25

Appendix

Research Proposal
People’s perspective on Data Rights being considered as Human Rights

Date: 20th December, 2019

To: Ms. Shapla Parvin (Spn)
From: Samin Yasar Chowdhury, ID: 1711811630, Sec: 20

Subject: Proposal to do research on people’s opinions on their online data rights.

Introduction:
As the Big tech companies continue to collect sensitive personal data on general people the question of
should data rights be considered as human rights is becoming increasingly important. We should be given
the rights on what data we emit on the internet. The technology companies should corporate handover the
power of controlling the distribution of our data. By hoarding people’s personal data and letting
businesses and political campaigns use it can have severe impact on the society and a nation's democracy.
So it is vital that people know what are the consequences of these free online services and what are the
rights the users should demand for more healthy and peaceful society.

The focus of my research will be to investigate how much people value their online personal data and do
they want to have the rights to control which services gets to access it. This paper will try to understand
the mentality people have on their online data and the whole online ecosystem..

Research Questions:
In my research I am planning to answer some pressing questions about the present online culture. My
paper will attempt to attempt to answer questions about how much importance do people give to their
privacy online and are they willing to change it. Some of the main questions the paper will attempt to
answer are given below.

1. How are you worried about your privacy online?

2. How do you want to control the exposure of your online data?
 26

3. Should technology companies be moderated by a central entity to mitigate this privacy problem?
4. How would you sacrifice the quality of these online services to have full control over your data?
5. How would you like the tech companies to be more transparent about their data policies?

Hypothesis
From the questions stated above I’m assuming people will express that they don’t think about this topic
enough. I am assuming that most of them will be worried about their personal information being tracked
but don’t know what to do about it. Also I am confident that although people are concerned about the
misuse of their data they will not sacrifice the free business model of these tech companies to have full
control of their personal data.

Research Methodology
For my primary research I’m going to students who invest a significant amount of their time on social
media and other online platforms, I will try to collect the data about their behaviour with my survey
questions, to know if these people truly know what is happening behind the scenes with their data.

For my secondary research I plan to use data from the internet about similar countries and cultures like
ours to gain information on how they are doing in this matter and try to draw a conclusion.

Organization

This research paper will be divided into several sections, the most notable sections are Results, Primary
Data Presentation and Analysis. Also my paper will also include the potential solutions to this data rights
problem and how can people be more careful about their online activities. The findings of the research
questions and also insight I got from the interviews will be in the sections as well.

TimeTable
I am hoping to complete my research paper before your deadline. I’m going to try to complete the
research survey before mid-December. I will submit my paper by 20th December, 2019
 27

Request For Approval

I hereby request your approval for my research proposal. If you wish to modify or improve my proposal, I
will submit it after incorporating the necessary changes. I would also be grateful for your advice and help
in conducting my research and completing the project

Survey questionnaires
This survey questionnaires have been designed has been to obtain a clear view on (people’s
perception on data rights being considered as human rights). This survey is a part of the research
project that needs to be completed for the course ENG 105 at North South University, Dhaka. Your
honest response to the questions will be highly appreciated and will be treated with utmost
confidentiality for this research. Thank you for your time and cooperation for filling out this
questionnaire.
 28

Survey questionnaires
This survey questionnaires have been designed has been to obtain a clear view on (people’s
perception on data rights being considered as human rights). This survey is a part of the research
project that needs to be completed for the course ENG 105 at North South University, Dhaka. Your
honest response to the questions will be highly appreciated and will be treated with utmost
confidentiality for this research. Thank you for your time and cooperation for filling out this
questionnaire.

Purpose: I want to find out what people’s views are about data rights and online privacy

Instruction: Tick the correct option

Age: > Under 20. > 20-30. > 30-40. > 40 or older.

Sex: > Male. > Female

3. How many social media and messaging apps do you use?

a. 1
b. 2
c. 3
d. 4 +

5.Social media platforms are being used to spread disinformation and propaganda
Do you agree with this statement?
a. Strongly agree
b. Moderately agree
c. Moderately disagree
d. Strongly disagree
 29

6. Users should have the right to control and distribute their own data not technology companies
Do you agree with this statement?
a. Strongly agree
b. Moderately agree
c. Moderately disagree
d. Strongly disagree

7. Do you support the monetization of user’s personal data?

a. I think its necessary for them to pay for their service so yes
b. I do but only if its done after taking consent
c. I am somewhat skeptical of it due to borderline unethical usage in some cases
d. I am strongly against this

8. Would you pay for these services in exchange for anonymity and data rights?
a. I want my data rights and free service.
b. I don't really care about my data.
c. I want the services to be free regardless.
d. Yes I am willing to pay for these services.

9. Would you switch from your current social media service to another which does give you data
ownership and the rights to control it?
a. Yes I would definitely switch
b. I would be willing to switch if the service is better or even the same
c. No because my friends are all in my current social media platform
d. I will not switch because that added feature is not of use to me

10. Do you trust these technologies companies with your online data?
a. Yes, because they use it to make the service better for me
b. No, because I think it is going to be misused
c. I don’t have much personal online data so it does not matter

11. Online services is worth the cost of giving away your personal data?
a. Strongly agree
b. Moderately agree
c. Moderately disagree
d. Strongly disagree
 30

12. Would it be beneficial if these tech companies were more open and transparent about what
their doing with your data?
a. Yes that would be a relief
b. I don’t think that will benefit me in anyway
c. I don't think companies will ever do that
d. I think companies should start doing that immediately

13. What do you think is stopping companies from being more transparent about their data
collection and mining process??

a. Trade secrecy
b. User's might be against some of the processes
c. They might be collecting extremely personal data
d. It would be harder to persuade informed users

Any Further Comments?

--------------------------------------------------------------
 31

References

Greenwald G. (2013, June 11th).​ Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA

surveillance revelations.​

Retrieved from:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-sur

veillance

Quoding A. (2018, April 13th). ​Shadow profiles - Facebook knows about you, even if you’re not

on Facebook

Retrieved from:

http://theconversation.com/shadow-profiles-facebook-knows-about-you-even-if-youre-no

t-on-facebook-94804

Rhodan M. (2014, September 23rd). ​Nearly 5 Million Google Passwords Leaked on Russian Site

Retrieved from: ​https://time.com/3318853/google-user-logins-bitcoin/

Rosenberg M. (2018, March 17th). ​How Trump Consultants Exploited the Facebook Data of

Millions
 32

Retrieved from:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-trump-campaign.ht

ml/

Amer, K. (Producer), & Noujaim, J. (Director). (2019). ​The Great Hack​ [Documentary]. United

States: Netflix.