I haven’t yet downloaded the NHS contact tracing app. The app is part of the UK government’s intervention to help stop the spread of the Coronavirus. To the annoyance of the young man preparing my flat white, I ask if I can just write down my contact details. He hands me the sheet along with my coffee and a short lecture.
It’s probably childish obstinacy especially as I’m generally complacent about handing over my data to whichever software company is demanding it in exchange for booking a museum experience or a yoga class. Maybe I’d be a more willing participant if I trusted the government. If I didn’t feel uncomfortable with companies profiteering from the COVID-19 crisis (although Serco’s role has been debunked as faked news) and the state’s reliance on privately owned platforms like Google or Apple. These are, of course, part of the trend towards the datafication of the state, but I worry that the current crisis fast-tracks us blind-folded down a path of no return.
Datafied welfare
Earlier in October, very early (!) in the morning, I tuned into a talk by Lina Dencik hosted by Monash University, Australia. Dencik is a Professor at Cardiff’s School of Journalism, Media and Culture, and Director of the Data Justice Lab. She has done extensive research on the role of digital technologies in administering welfare. This has been accelerated – not just by the advances of technology, but years of cuts to public spending. Computers are efficient and make seemingly politically neutral and objective decisions. Yet, she argues, this is where social problems have become individual problems. Poor circumstances are outcomes of certain behaviour and characteristics rather than symptoms of underlying inequalities. “Rather than creating conditions for social mobility and human flourishing, the datafied welfare state threatens to lock individuals into their data futures and dispending with the possibility for social change” (Dencik & Kaun 2020).
Behind artificial intelligence
The contact tracing app may become a condition for participating in society as far as participating in society in my personal life requires the consumption of flat whites. But I can carry on with my obstinacy in a way I couldn’t if it were about my university degree, weekly income, or my fate in the hands of the justice system. Building on my first blog post, I plan to explore this more in my final course assignment, the academic blog post, but in the meantime, I wanted to share this image I had in my head when was reading Dencik’s article ‘The Datafied Welfare State: A Perspective from the UK’. This was also an opportunity to figure out how to do animated videos. (In case you want to know, I used VideoScribe where I uploaded my doodles and then edited the masterpiece with Adobe Premiere Rush). I may not leave my day job just yet.
