Privacy, Surveillance, and The Law of Social Media

Introduction

An individual has the right no to be subject to automated individual decision making, this is as it is stipulated in article 22 of the UK general data protection regulation (GDPR). “a subject shall have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling which produces legal effects concerning him/ her or similarly significantly affects him/her.”[1] The GDPR is devised to coordinate anonymity laws in the UK for the shielding of subjects against the unlawful processing of personal data and its free circulation coming with it.[2] Personal data, in this case, refers to any information that relates to an unidentified or identifiable living individual.[3] In the UK, data protection law was initially governed by Directive 95/46/EC, and later on, the GDPR which was brought into effect in May 2018. The data protection act applies when personal data is gathered, and stored by an organization or individual for use.

The personal data whose mishandling leads to infringement is usually the data that contains sensitive information about a natural person. This data includes information about an individual’s race, ethnicity, political inclinations, genetics, health status, biometrics, religion, and sexual orientation.[4] Having established this, it’s, therefore, an individual’s right to be appraised on how their data is used, bar the use of the data, request for its removal, update, or portability.

In direct marketing, the GDPR rules on direct marketing with a focus on calls texts, and emails, to individuals and how they affect lead generation and the use of marketing lists. It will therefore help the responsible organization to operate within the law and maintain their good reputation with customers and set out what enforcement action can take against those who ignore the rules.[6] in this light, the organizations must therefore not send marketing texts or emails to individuals without a prior specific consent there is however an exemption of the previous customer who is known as the soft opt-in. in this case, organizations are required to stop contacting the customers once they opt out.

With the UK and the international community economy revolving around the availability and the use of data, the question of how this provision is affecting the marketers has risen a discussion in recent days. It brought about the questioning of the purpose of its existence and whether it should be removed and replaced with legislation more focused on whether automated decision-making meets a legitimate interest area. In this paper, I will carry out a critical analysis of what this provision does for the society and its effect on the market thereby determining whether it’s in the best interest of the UK, in general, to remove the provision or if it should be kept in place.

Advantages of having the stipulation

Disadvantages of the Stipulation

A free share of data would lead to streamlined services. If data would be shared among the businesses, this would lead to business mapping that in turn leads to streamlined services and products. For instance, if a business manages to identify a gap in the market, based on social media activity, then they would be able to produce a product or a service that is tailored for the specific purpose in that region. this would therefore mean an increase in productivity and a reduction in materials used and hence cost of products would most likely go down. This would favor the consumers and the producers at the same time. “Digging into data and the use of a combination of creativity, psychology, logic, and mathematics would help find the unseen patterns that can help clients reach their goals.”[15] when these techniques are put in place, this would lead to reduced cost of living, increased revenue for the country, and increased profits for the shareholders of the said organization. This all is subject to a review of the provision.

The sharing of the said data can lead to saving lives. What I mean by this is that since nowadays smartwatches thet take the vitals of their owners have become a common thing, then the data recorded by the owners of those providers can be used to find out even the slightest of body changes that occurs just before a stroke or even a heart attack. They can therefore employ this data in making sure that when it happens to another person they are warned.

There is also the issue of health and pharmaceuticals in general. If there was data sharing showing the different places and the different diseases that are prevalent, then it’s easy to calculate the correlation and come up with drugs that are needed in that specific region. In addition, when the pharmaceutical companies are producing a drug, they know is meant for a specific region, then that drug will be customized to meet the legislative specifications or standards of the specific country. They can also customize the medication to withstand the prevalent conditions of the targeted area. Thousands of people often view content posted by pharmaceutical companies on social media; users also share company postings making both direct and indirect influence possible.[18] to say the least, shared information would positively impact the pharmaceutical business and help the residents of a certain area.

Lastly, there are other businesses that are based in countries that are not bound by a similar set of provisions, this would mean that the businesses base here and offer the same set of services or products are at a disadvantage.it would be simpler if the rules were fair in all regions not just in the UK. We might be correct in holding these enterprises responsible but there will always be that gap between them and the enterprises that operate in a more unethical manner or a manner that doesn’t pay much interest to the privacy of the customers. This overregulation also impacts innovation. Adding red tape in the form of endless consent prompts for every data process might significantly burden customers in their enjoyment of online services and applications in an age when user-friendliness is one of the key factors in retaining customers.[19]innovation always goes hand in hand with freedom, the more freedom our developers are given, the more creative they are bound to get. And the more creative they get the better our products will be and the ability to rule the international market once more. Its therefore a positive to make sure that we keep up with the external regulations.

Conclusion

To sum up, this argument, having considered the pros and cons of the abolishment of this provision, I would be more inclined to let it stand at least for now. While it is true that the removal of these stipulations would be like the removal of shackles to our organizations, I do not think we are prepared enough to deal with the kind of privacy breaches and leakages that is most likely to come with the removal of the stipulation. In order to do well for the organizations, we must first come up with a panel that will be mandated to make the decision of whether and how much information should a particular organization receive. It would be illogical and naïve to think that this enterprise will be bound by ethics to not share that information or to take good care of it and use it properly.

After the panel has been selected, then it will be easy to monitor what a specific organization will need to ensure the growth of our economy, and benefit the consumer and producer while making sure that the right to privacy holds even if the individuals are not the ones to sign off. In conclusion, this agenda can improve this country but it needs time to be actualized. It is an idea with many advantages but without being ready, the price is just way too high to make people pay for their economy. However, it should be tabled and discussed over time to come up with an oversite that can replace GDPR without losing our rights.

Bibliography

Bygrave LA, ‘Article 22 Automated individual decision-making, including profiling’, The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Oxford University Press 2020) <http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198826491.003.0055> accessed 7 May 2022

Direct marketing code of practice; draft code for consultation p 26

Sharma S, Data Privacy and GDPR Handbook (Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, John 2019) p 61

Jennifer Tyrawski and David C DeAndrea, ‘Pharmaceutical Companies and Their Drugs on Social Media: A Content Analysis of Drug Information on Popular Social Media Sites’ (PubMed Central (PMC)) <www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4526896/> accessed 7 May 2022.

General Data Protection recital 39