Big Data: From modern fears to enlightened and vigilant embrace of new beginnings

• Main Author: Nicole Dewandre
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2020-07-01
• Series: Big Data & Society
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951720936708

In The Black Box Society , Frank Pasquale develops a critique of asymmetrical power: corporations’ secrecy is highly valued by legal orders, but persons’ privacy is continually invaded by these corporations. This response proceeds in three stages. I first highlight important contributions of The Black Box Society to our understanding of political and legal relationships between persons and corporations. I then critique a key metaphor in the book (the one-way mirror, Pasquale’s image of asymmetrical surveillance), and the role of transparency and ‘watchdogging’ in its primary policy prescriptions. I then propose ‘relational selfhood’ as an important new way of theorizing interdependence in an era of artificial intelligence and Big Data, and promoting optimal policies in these spheres.