Overview presentation discussing the issues and methods of the CaSMa project (see also http://casma.wp.horizon.ac.uk/ )

1. Citizen centric approaches to
Social Media analysis (CaSMa)
Ansgar Koene
Derek McAuley, Tom Rodden, Claire O’Malley, Svenja Adolphs,
Elvira Perez Vellejos, Ramona Statache, Christopher Carter

2. Social Media Analysis
• Understanding the ways people use social media and what
this means for individuals and society.
• Understanding social phenomena and events expressed in
social media by drawing upon social media as a critical, and
timely, source of information.
Citizen centric approaches
• The development of facilities and approaches that are
sensitive to the personal nature of human data;
• The promotion of responsible innovation in the capture,
analysis and use of human data.
Citizen centric approaches to Social Media
Analysis – what does this mean?

3. • Social Media analytics is experiencing explosive growth
Why citizen centric approaches to
Social Media analysis?
Social media-related research in tourism and hospitality
Zeng & Gerritsen, 2014

4. • We do Social Media analysis for:
– Scientific curiosity, to gain insight into the ‘human condition’
and ‘how society works’
– To help people live better lives by increasing the efficiency of
cities, health services etc.
• We follow the ethics guidelines and avoid linking of data/results
to specific individuals.
• However:
– The results from our research can/are used outside of the
scientific community (corporations, intelligence agencies etc.)
Why should this raise concerns?

5. • Facebook – “our algorithms decide what you see
and how you feel”
Social Medial research with
questionable ethics

6. • OkCupid – “our algorithms manipulate your love
life”
Social Medial research with
questionable ethics

7. • NSA/GCHQ, etc.
– Michele Catalano household web-search for pressure cooker
and backpack resulted in being raided by the ‘joint terrorism
task force’ (Sharwood, 2013)
• Google and other advertisers use Social Media analysis to
target advertising
– the 100 most widely used websites are monitored by more
than 1,300 firms (TRUSTe, cited in the Economist Sept 13, 2014)
• Growing distrust by the public who fear being manipulated
Non-research applications of SMa

8. • There is a need for greater transparency in the research use
of new forms of data, maximising the gains in knowledge
derived from such data while minimising the risks to
individuals’ privacy, seeking to retain public confidence in
scientific research which makes use of new forms of data.
- OECD New Data for Understanding the Human Condition: International
Perspectives
Implications for research

9. • The importance of “Small Data”
– Human data is intimate and personal, not big and
aggregated
• The need to be “Ethical by Design”
– Responsible innovation should be built into the tools
and approaches
• Putting people at the centre of human data
– Move from a transactional model where people are
severed from their data to a model where people
hold their data
a Citizen Centric approach

10. Problems:
• Balance of power
– Participants loose all control once data is submitted to the
central database
• Security
– high profile target containing more data than necessary
Redesigning – data ownership
Standard Approach
Central
Database
(held by
researchers)
Participant 1
Participant 2
Participant n
Third party
(researcher)
query results
data query

11. Redesigning – data ownership
Decentralized ‘ethics by design’ approach
P1
Personal
container
Participant 1
data
Participant 2
Participant 3
P3
Personal
container
P2
Personal
container
data
data
Request
distributor
data request
data request
data request
Third party
(researcher)
Reply
integration
confirmation
confirmation
confirmation

12. Advantages:
• Privacy – responses to data requests can be ID-free/use-and-
dispose-IDs (sent via through TOR network)
• Transparency – Confidence – Trust
– Data cross-referencing requires posting of combined
information request, allowing participant side check of risk
of de-anonymization.
• Security
– Distributed data storage reduces value of individual
targets.
Redesigning – data ownership

13. • Dataware (Horizon, UoN)
– Personal Containers
• Ma3tch (FIU.net, EU)
Existing implementations
Udo Kroon, 2013
Financial Investigation Unit

14. • Open Data agenda by government and research councils
– Concerns regarding privacy when large databases are
merged  de-anonymization
– Third-party re-use of data related to an (anonymized)
individual, via an Open Data repository, is almost
guaranteed to violate the Code of EU Online Rights.
• Responsibility of academics to provide an example to
industry concerning possibility of doing ethical Social Media
analysis that is useful but also respects people’s privacy.
Further reasons for citizen centric
“ethical by design”

15. Citizen centric approaches to Social Media analysis that
• pro-actively considers ethical and privacy implications by
• employing “ethical by design” methods, can
• provide transparency of the research use of social media data
• minimize the risks to individuals’ privacy, thus
• safeguarding the trust and cooperation of the public and
• maximising the gains in knowledge derived from such data.
Conclusion

16. http://www.horizon.ac.uk/Projects/casma-citizen-centric-
approaches-to-social-media-analaysis
http://casmaresearch.wordpress.com/
https://twitter.com/CaSMaResearch
https://www.facebook.com/CaSMaResearch
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/CaSMa-Citizen-Centric-
Approaches-Social-8185094
Ansgar.Koene@nottingham.ac.uk

18. 1. …. The data that individuals provide directly or indirectly must not be used
for purposes other than originally intended. Nor can such data be passed
on indiscriminately to entities that the individual has not chosen to be
involved with. ….
2. Individuals have the right to receive information from people and
companies holding some of their personal data in their files, such as
websites, data bases, service providers etc. (“data controllers”), and they
have the right to correct or erase this data if it is incomplete or
inaccurate:
– Data controllers are required to inform consumers when they collect
personal data about them;
– Individuals have the right to know the name of the controller, the
intended use of the data processing, and to whom the data may be
transferred;
– Individuals are entitled to ask the data controller whether he is
processing personal data about them;
– Individuals have the right to receive a copy of the data that relates to
them in intelligible form;
– Individuals have the right to ask for the deletion, blocking or erasing of
the data if it is incomplete, inaccurate or obtained unlawfully.
Individuals have the right to object to the processing of personal data.
Code of EU Online Rights