A right to reset your user profile and more: GDPR-rights for personalized news consumers

Eskens, Sarah Johanna

doi:10.1093/idpl/ipz007

Cited by 13 publications

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“…Scholars have questioned the individual and societal implications of algorithms and the extent to which user rights are effective, and argued for the need to empower users vis-a-vis the technology to defend their interests (Eskens 2019;Harambam, Helberger, and van Hoboken 2018). This article takes this argument further by asking what kinds of safeguards and controls users would find useful in the context of news personalisation.…”

Section: Users' Perceived Benefits and Concerns Regarding News Personmentioning

confidence: 99%

User Perspectives on the News Personalisation Process: Agency, Trust and Utility as Building Blocks

et al. 2020

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With the increasing use of algorithms in news distribution, commentators warn about its possible impacts on the changing relationship between the news media and news readers. To understand the meaning of news personalisation strategies to users, we investigated how they currently experience news personalisation, perceive their role in the personalisation process, and envision increasing the utility of personalised news by giving users more agency and fostering trust. We conducted four focus groups with online news readers in Germany. For the analysis, grounded theory techniques were suitable due to their applicability in reconstructing user perspectives through their own experiences. We found that (1) users fail to distinguish between news personalisation and commercial targeting, which may negatively bias their perception; (2) there is a contradiction in how users perceive themselves as active participants in the process, but lack the means to exercise agency; (3) user concerns extend beyond privacy to what information they receive and their right to personal autonomy-a solution requires offering users the ability to dynamically adjust their "news interest profiles"; (4) while news personalisation strategies afford new opportunities for introducing reciprocity in the media-audience relationship, negotiating competing logics of journalistic, personal and algorithmic curation remains a challenge.

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Section: Users' Perceived Benefits and Concerns Regarding News Personmentioning

confidence: 99%

User Perspectives on the News Personalisation Process: Agency, Trust and Utility as Building Blocks

et al. 2020

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“…In the European Union (EU), online personalization is in part regulated by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR sets conditions for the processing of personal data and gives people various rights to control their personal data and some aspects of the personalization process (Eskens, 2019). However, the GDPR and similar data protection frameworks based on the fair information practice principles (FIPPs) provide only simple and reductive forms of control, such as consent to data collection or not, objecting to data processing or not, or rectifying some data (in very limited cases).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The personal information sphere: An integral approach to privacy and related information and communication rights

Eskens

2020

Asso for Info Science & Tech

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Data protection laws, including the European Union General Data Protection Regulation, regulate aspects of online personalization. However, the data protection lens is too narrow to analyze personalization. To define conditions for personalization, we should understand data protection in its larger fundamental rights context, starting with the closely connected right to privacy. If the right to privacy is considered along with other European fundamental rights that protect information and communication flows, namely, communications confidentiality; the right to receive information; and freedom of expression, opinion, and thought, these rights are observed to enable what I call a “personal information sphere” for each person. This notion highlights how privacy interferences affect other fundamental rights. The personal information sphere is grounded in European case law and is thus not just an academic affair. The essence of the personal information sphere is control, yet with a different meaning than mere control as guaranteed by data protection law. The personal information sphere is about people controlling how they situate themselves in information and communication networks. It follows that, to respect privacy and related rights, online personalization providers should actively involve users in the personalization process and enable them to use personalization for personal goals.

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“…what exactly they read, but also where from and using what devices). In this context, we opt for a broad treatment of the value of data protection that emphasizes the importance of both protecting reader data and providing readers with control over how their data is used and processed, in particular for the purposes of automated decision-making as in the case of ANRs (Eskens 2019). Consequently, concerns about the data used by the ANR (and also data protection measures implemented by the organization) are an important factor in the user's decision to trust and appreciate individualized news delivery and also influences how the change in their relationship with the outlet is perceived (Monzer et.…”

Section: Audience-centered Values and Algorithmic News Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Safeguarding the Journalistic DNA: Attitudes towards the Role of Professional Values in Algorithmic News Recommender Designs

2021

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In contrast to the extensive debate on the influence of algorithmic news recommenders (ANRs) on individual news diets, the interaction between such systems and journalistic norms and missions remain under-studied. The change in the relationship between journalists and the audience caused by the transition to personalized news delivery has profound consequences for the understanding of what journalism should be. To investigate how media practitioners perceive the impact of ANRs on their professional norms and media organizations' missions, and how these norms and missions can be integrated into ANR design, this article looks at two quality newspapers from the Netherlands and Switzerland. Using an interviewbased approach conducted with practitioners in different departments (e.g. journalists, data scientists, and product managers), it explores how ANRs interact with organization-centred and audience-centred journalistic values. The paper's findings indicate a varying degree of prominence for specific values between individual practitioners in the context of their perception of ANRs. At the same time, the paper also reveals that some organization-centred (e.g. transparency) and most audience-centred (e.g. usability) values are viewed as prerequisites for successful ANR design by practitioners with different professional backgrounds.

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A right to reset your user profile and more: GDPR-rights for personalized news consumers

Cited by 13 publications

References 0 publications

User Perspectives on the News Personalisation Process: Agency, Trust and Utility as Building Blocks

User Perspectives on the News Personalisation Process: Agency, Trust and Utility as Building Blocks

The personal information sphere: An integral approach to privacy and related information and communication rights

Safeguarding the Journalistic DNA: Attitudes towards the Role of Professional Values in Algorithmic News Recommender Designs

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