The Structuration of Digital Ecosystem, Privacy, and Big Data Intelligence

Abstract

This study presents a conceptual model of understanding algorithmic digital surveillance systems, borrowing insight from Giddens, who proposed the notion of structuration as social practices deriving from the intersection between structure and agents. We argue that the status of privacy, or lack of it, is a product of these interactions, of which the personal data practices and related interests constitute the reproduction of a data ecosystem. We trace the process of data production and consumption, dissecting the interactive dynamics between digital media producers (personal data users) and users (personal data producers). Inadequacies, limits, and social and policy implications of data surveillance and its algorithmic reproduction of identities are discussed. © 2018 SAGE Publications.