The role of digital consumer data in contemporary consumer culture: political, ethical and commercial implications
Short description
What is the role of digital consumer data in contemporary consumer culture? This project aims to critically examine consumer knowledge and reactions (positive and negative) to targeted marketing and efforts to make their digital data available for commercial use.
AI technologies organize consumer data and constitute everyday consumer experiences. The tracking and surveillance of the daily actions of consumers is expanding and change the perception of consumption as a matter of choice and more the result of data-based prediction.
AI technologies organize consumer data and constitute everyday consumer experiences.
Thus, digital data has political and ethical implications for consumption in terms of power, agency and knowledge. It influences how we live, how we connect, what we know and what we consume, and create concerns about issues such as integrity and control based on data about individuals and groups.
This project aims to critically examine consumer knowledge and reactions (positive and negative) to targeted marketing and efforts to make their digital data available for commercial use. The project combines ethnographic (qualitative) methods to study different political / ethical aspects of consumer data: interviews with consumers and close-up studies of technologies, software and digital interfaces used for marketing purposes.