I gave a presentation about MyData as an Actor-Network on Sosiologipäivät 2017, the annual finnish' sociologist's conference.

1. MyData as an Actor-
Network
OSKARI LAPPALAINEN
UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI

2. About me
 Bachelor of Social Sciences
 I studied sociology, science & Technology studies, and information technology
 I discovered the MyData concept through voluntary work
 Actor Network Theory as a kind of a holistic worldview
 Not directly linked to any research
 Part of my doctoral work if I decide to do it
 Interested in hearing feedback & ideas

3. Setting the context: personal data
economy
 As the amount data produced by humans grows…
 …so will the economic potential of personal data
 World Economic Forum: potential to have a
great impact on the global economy
 The Boston Consulting Group: will be worth 1000
billion euros in the EU by 2020

4. Problems with the personal data economy
 A cluster of interlinked problems
 Personal data economy is not very transparent
 Business model: offer ”free” service in exchange for personal information
(Facebook & many other apps)
 Personal information is sold behind the users’ back for profit
 Obscure terms of service, people don’t know where their data goes to
 Enables profiling which can be used for microtargeted advertising
 Information stays in it’s own silos owned by organizations
 ”Surveilance capitalism” (Zuboff 2015)

5. The present state of the personal
information economy

6. What is MyData?
 MyData can be seen both as an ideal of a technology and as a social movement
advancing this ideal
 MyData aims to address the issues with personal data economy by putting the
individual in control of his or her own data
 So instead of organizations having data on users the users have their own data
which they can lend or sell forward in exchange for services
 Highly portable and combinable data would also allow for completely novel
services

7. MyData as a social phenomenon

8. MyData is in a process of translation
 MyData is in a process of formation– in ANT lingo it is in process of translation
 Idea born around 2012, Finland, France, Estonia hotbeds of activity
 Callon: Translation is a process where an actor enrolls allies to tackle some kind of
a problem
 In this case the problem is solving the issues with personal data economy through
an individual-centric model of personal data management
 I will now present you with a Finland-centric overview of the actor-network that is
involved in MyData

9. The rough view

10. MyData activism holds the network
together
 Acts as a force that has enrolled the network and which draws together elements
from the private and public sector
 MyData activists often have a dual role, work in IT industry or public sector
 Some however are more purely 3rd sector operators
 MyData activism has been more like network building than traditional activism –
lobbying and advocacy work however have also been needed
 MyData Allianssi as a finnish alliance of private and public sector actors with an
interest in developing MyData
 Open Knowledge Finland particularily active

11. MyData as an ideal of a technology

12. MyData aims to change the obligatory
passage point of personal data economy
 MyData aims to put the individual user into the center of the personal data economy
 The alternative: corporation or state dominated model
 The MyData Operator model
 MyData Operators offer data accounts to customers, customers own the data and
lease/sell data through these operators
 Has an anti-monopolistic element built in, the objective is a broad open network of
service provides instead of a global monopoly
 Connection to open information technology ideals
 Presently at pilot stage (at best), some startups in Europe, more public sector driven in
Finland

13. The network of operators

14. Some closing thoughts
 A very new phenomenon – impossible to say to what extent it will succeed or
what impact it will have
 This makes it a very fruitful target for ANT research!
 Perhaps best seen as a part of a larger context of personal data economy and
open data advocacy
 Can also be seen in the context of diverging information economies – the
corporation dominated US model, the totalitarian chinese model…MyData as the
european model?
 Presents the question of whether other kinds of ”activist technologies” exist –
blockchain as a potential other example

15. Further reading
 If you want to read a more in-depth analysis, you can check out my article at
sosiologi.fi (only in finnish)
 mydata.fi, the MyData Allianssi page
 Poikola, Antti, Kuikkaniemi, Kai, ja Honko, Harri. 2015. “MyData – A Nordic Model
for human-centered personal data management and processing.” Ministry of
Transport and Communications. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-243-455-5