Last Name
Fischli
First name
Roberta
Email
roberta.fischli@unisg.ch
ORCID
Phone
+41 71 224 3217
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PublicationCitizens' Freedom Invaded: Domination in the Data EconomyToday, an increasing part of our daily activities are digitally mediated. Most of them run on a digital infrastructure owned by a small number of actors, who are largely able to determine the conditions for their services, as well as how our data are subsequently used. What results is a growing gap between those who provide data about themselves, and those who can extract meaning from them. This divide is also characterized by a power asymmetry: our access to options is increasingly controlled by those in possession of the relevant resources, technologies and expertise. In this article, I argue that neo-republican theory is uniquely positioned to reveal power asymmetries in the data economy. Drawing on freedom as non-domination, I identify two areas in which we currently experience domination: the constitution of our option sets, as well as our actual exercise of free choice. Especially the former warrants atten- tion: provided corporate actors possess enough data points about us, they are able to exercise a form of domination that precedes interference. Neo-republican theory there- fore helps us to identify instances of domination that a narrow focus on interference might miss. Subsequently, I discuss a range of potential remedies to the status quo and how they correspond with neo-republican theory.