Interrogating Data Practices Lecture Series: What do we know about what people think about data practices? (Helen Kennedy)

Five years ago, not much ‘bottom up’ empirical research into people’s thoughts, feelings and experiences of datafication had been undertaken. But a lot has changed in a short time, and recent years have seen a proliferation of surveys, polls and qualitative research about such matters. Drawing on a comprehensive review of academic and grey literature on this topic, I will comment on some emergent themes and identify future directions for research in this area. These include: the affective dimensions of living data; whether more trust in datafication should be the goal; ideas about fairness; the importance of social inequalities and their absence in much of this research; and how the way that research is undertaken shapes what is found.