This week on “The Sum of our Data,” we take a look at personal data. Not just your personal data, but our collective data. What it means to have ownership, privacy and control over it. When you think about all the data points you generate on a daily basis, and how connected we are to one another, you can start to see this data as a vast interwoven story of us.
I think about our recent election and the stories generated from the results. Think of election day is a data snapshot of how voting Americans saw our country and where it would be headed. And the day after, many looked at the data and asked “Is this us?” Suddenly the data becomes real. But it’s important to remember that no data set is tidy and complete or paints a full picture. And you can tell a myriad of stories through it to make sense of it.
It can often be hard to think about what’s at stake when talking about data. It is so slippery, invisible and intangible to us. Yet it influences so much of our lives and says so much about us. Perhaps we’ve undervalued the power of our data and our connectedness, and we’ve given up that power to those who have a larger say in how we live our lives. My hope is that we can feel empowered to take more control of our information, and ultimately tell our own story.
– Angelo