'My Data, My Bad ...': Young People's Personal Data Understandings and (Counter)Practices

Abstract

Large quantities of personal data are now being generated, collated and processed through young people's uses of social media. Third parties increasingly use these data to profile, predict and position the individuals they are associated with. These developments have prompted calls for individuals to adopt more informed and critical stances toward how and why their data is being used -- i.e., to become vigilant 'data citizens'. Against this background, this paper reports on an ongoing project that explores the extent to which social media users are aware of their personal data and its attendant issues and uses. Drawing on participatory design research with four diverse groups of young people (aged 14 to 18 years), this paper investigates the possibilities of making third party (re)uses of personal data openly available in digitized form for young people to access, interpret and use to develop counter-practices and resistant tactics. The results of these interventions -- while only partially successful -- provide valuable insights into the technical, informatic, organizational and social issues surrounding how young people engage with social media, and how academic concerns over data relate to everyday lived experiences of social media use in a digital age.