Charles Woods, a privacy rhetoric expert in Georgia Tech's School of Literature, Media, and Communication at the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, shares four major concerns.
- What’s happening: As people share more personal information through social media, online purchases, health trackers, and location services, Woods warns that many accept data collection without fully understanding how their information is shared and monetized.
- Why it's important: Increasing third-party data sharing and privacy slippage between corporate and government organizations threatens our privacy and makes us more susceptible to digital profiling, targeted enforcement, and self-censorship.
- Expert insight: "What we need to do in response to the astronomical streams of data being shared online is develop a response to our surveillance apathy,” Woods said.
How much data are you sharing online through social media, online purchases, health trackers, and location services?
If you can’t answer confidently, you might be practicing a form of surveillance apathy, said Charles Woods, a technical communication expert and data privacy researcher at Georgia Tech's School of Literature, Media, and Communication.
Surveillance apathy is accepting data collection in exchange for convenience, belonging, or other benefits without fully understanding the consequences of sharing and monetizing your personal information.
Woods teaches a course on privacy-surveillance rhetoric at Georgia Tech and studies human-first approaches to data privacy to overcome the uneven power dynamics created by surveillance. He also co-founded the Digital Rhetorical Privacy Collective, which seeks to raise awareness about data privacy and build coalitions across the political spectrum to address growing surveillance and data collection.
He said that as the amount of data shared online continues to grow, we should all be concerned about who collects that information, how it’s used, and the risks of giving up our data privacy.
"Combating governmental surveillance is something that transcends our polarizing political spectrum," Woods said. “What we need to do in response to the astronomical streams of data being shared online is develop a response to our surveillance apathy.”
Why Do We Share Our Data So Freely?
This apathy comes from a mix of factors, including a desire for convenience and belonging, as well as a lack of understanding of exactly how much is being collected and shared. But many apps, websites, and wearable devices include terms that allow companies to share or sell user data to third parties.
“The data is used to build profiles and sell products,” Woods said. “But is the product a new cell phone cover or is the product a specific political candidate?”
Four Concerns About Eroding Data Privacy
1. Health Privacy
For Woods, the risk to our health privacy, long protected by the Hippocratic oath, is at the top of his list of data privacy concerns. If your doctor has asked whether an ambient AI can record your conversation, you might already be wondering where that data goes, who controls it, and how it is protected.
“A diabetic monitor is another really great example because it's going to collect the data to make sure that your sugar levels are where they need to be. That's going to the company. But if a third party they're working with is an insurance company, they could use that data and set your premiums at a higher rate because you have diabetes,” Woods said.
2. Privacy Slippage
Woods’ second major concern is privacy slippage, or the erosion of boundaries between corporate and governmental surveillance. He points to the use of genetic testing services such as 23andMe to catch criminals with DNA.
Although there can be positive outcomes, Woods argues we should not be repurposing direct consumer technology for police surveillance, especially for people who may have opted into the service before the data sharing began.
“You might get an email about an updated terms-of-service agreement, but you never get one saying you can opt out,” Woods said.
3. Digital Profiling and Targeted Enforcement
Privacy slippage can lead to more detailed predictive profiling and a greater risk of social and economic manipulation. It can also increase targeted enforcement, where corporate and government organizations use combined data systems to monitor specific groups, activities, and critics.
“We’ll see detailed digital profiles that can predict not only a person's behavior but their political views and things like health risks. And we don't always know that those things are being predicted as users,” Woods said. “We may also experience more discriminatory pricing, automated bias, and flawed algorithms deciding who gets the loan, who gets the job, who gets the extra security check at the airport, et cetera,” Woods said.
4. The Chilling Effect
When people know they’re being watched, their behavior can also change, consciously or subconsciously.
“On apps like TikTok and Facebook, there's a chilling effect, because people alter or change their behaviors online,” Woods explained. “They self-censor to avoid legal protests or avoid ramifications about their job.”
The effects can extend beyond social media, influencing how people express opinions, create art and media, participate in public conversations, and engage with issues they care about, he said.
How Can Awareness Help?
Woods says the first step toward reclaiming our digital privacy is awareness, and he encourages everyone to pay closer attention to how surveillance operates in their everyday lives.
“Read the terms-of-service document. Know what a Flock camera is. Know if you see a Flock camera. Decide how you feel about these things,” he said. “Don’t be afraid to be fluid or flexible, but ultimately stick to your values.”
Through his research and work with data privacy and surveillance scholars in the Digital Rhetorical Privacy Collective, Woods hopes that helping people recognize the ways surveillance shapes their daily experiences can prompt meaningful action.
“What we’re hoping is that by getting that pop-up box to click agree to the cookies section is ultimately going to make us look up and see the CCTV camera on the side of the building, which is ultimately going to push us to read the terms of service document and propel us towards a rhetorical action to combat surveillance and surveillance apathy."
Charles Woods is an assistant professor in Georgia Tech's School of Literature, Media, and Communication, where his research focuses on digital rhetoric and the rhetoric of science, particularly data privacy, digital surveillance, and emerging technologies.
