Making sense of Trifles: Data Narratives and Cumulative Data Disclosure

The law does not concern itself with trifles. If a risk is deemed minimal, or an infraction negligible, invoking the authority of the law often seems unnecessary. However, there are increasingly fields of human activity where this principle leads to gaps in the protection necessary for a flourishing society. This paper reports findings and ideas from a research project in cumulative data disclosure, where an aggregation of in themselves harmless data points can expose the users of social media to significant personal risk.