“I agree to being socially quantified”: A Socio-Technical Perspective on Digitally-Provided Consent

Objectives: The more digitally entrenched we become as a society, the more, it seems, we are becoming embroiled within the machinations of digital platforms and their owners, and information systems and their designers. Despite recent conversations to the contrary, we are somewhat powerless to prevent such things as the monitoring of our location, the tracking of our behaviors, and what information might be shared and exchanged about us. When signing up and agreeing to use digital platforms and information systems, the pressing needs of individuals to secure a service or product take precedence over anything else. To this extent, it seems that we have all agree to be socially quantified without a real understanding - nor the control - of what this actually entails. Data and Methods: Using a case study approach, we apply a socio-technical lens to a range of digital platforms and information systems, consent and EULA’s. We suggest that it is unlikely that most End Users comprehend, understand or even acknowledge the content of what it is they are agreeing to. In light of this, we argue that there exists an increasingly difficult challenge to establish a mutual understanding of what consent actually is and how this is communicated to the End User. Results: This paper presents a model which positions the concept of consent and EULA’s within a socio-technical framing. This model approaches consent as two systems of information: the first is an attribute in a data model - a tick box, an ‘I Agree’ button; the other is a socio technical construct of moral orders which contains the feelings, convictions and aspirations of the End User as they engage in the use of digital systems, and the intentions of the digital platform owners and information system designers. Conclusions: Our model introduces two distinct paradigms as a frame to discuss and appropriate the notion of consent: information distribution processing systems, and information communication systems. The application of this framing provides a transparent understanding between the End User and the intentions of the digital platform owners and information systems designers they use, and they data that is exchanged as a result.