Report commissioned by Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (HM Government)
Technological advances are giving us information about people on a more granular level than ever before. Governments and companies can now model and predict the beliefs, preferences, and behaviour of small groups and even individuals - allowing them to “target” interventions, messages, and services much more narrowly. These new forms of targeting present huge opportunities to make valuable interventions more effective, for example by delivering public services to those most in need of them. However, the use of more fine-grained information about individuals and groups also raises huge risks, challenging key notions of privacy, fairness, and autonomy. Some cases of targeting will be clearly beneficial, and others clearly manipulative, but there will also be a large grey area in between.
For further information about the background to this report please see LCFI News.