Stuart Mills continues his series on data policy theory, focusing on the opportunities and problems of nudging.
So far, I have explored how data have a philosophical dimension, and that the way we define data can have significant implications for how we understand who should control, access and ultimately benefit from the digital economy.
I have also considered the political dimensions of portugal rcs data data, and explored ideas of data being individualistic, versus data being collective entities. The grand conclusion of both the political and philosophical theories of data was a toolkit for thinking about data ownership, and in my last blogpost, I used that toolkit to construct various models of data ownership within the digital economy.
In the next two blog posts, I’m going to consider some more practical questions of data policy. Next time, I’m going to explore how money and economic production systems themselves are becoming digitised via technologies such as fintech and blockchain. I will also consider whether these innovations represent new phenomena for the economy, or if they’re actually part of a wider story regarding economic development.
In this blogpost, however, I’m going to be somewhat more indulgent, and write specifically about the ideas covered in my PhD thesis. These ideas pertain to the intersection of behavioural economics and data, and how personalised choice environments can be both extremely helpful and potentially damaging.