1.02. What are the societal issues surrounding data?

In the year 2000, only a quarter of the world's recorded information existed in digital format. In just 13 years, this figure rose to 98%. Digital spaces, still largely optional at the beginning of the century, have since taken a central place in human activity - including cultural life. In this digital world, socionumerical spaces (i.e., social networks) have become a phenomenon in their own right, with a penetration rate of 80.3 % of the French population - 52.60 million active users in January 2022 - compared to 58.4 % worldwide (We Are Social, Hootsuite, 2022). In this context, a true process of *"datafication"*¹ is unfolding - with still largely unsuspected implications: "no longer digitising documents, but every aspect of life." The episode "Data brokers, les courtiers de nos données" from the France Inter programme Tout est numérique (7 July 2018) illustrates the extent of the trade built around the data we scatter at every moment of our digital lives - particularly by data brokers. These brokers specialise in collecting, purchasing, and selling data on individuals or organisations. Such data encompasses a wide range of information, from demographic profiles to consumer behaviour, web browsing habits, financial records, and purchase histories. Data brokers acquire this information through public sources, such as government registries, electoral rolls, and publicly available social media data, as well as through commercial sources like transaction records, loyalty programmes, and customer satisfaction surveys. In addition, they gather digital data via cookies, mobile apps, websites, and social media platforms. This massive datafication process carries within it a powerful ideological underpinning. As New York Times columnist Jeff Brookes put it: the belief that "everything that can be measured should be," and that data might even enable us to do something as remarkable as "predict the future." 

Such a project relies on ever-increasing volumes of information and ever-more powerful systems to analyse them: this is Big Data. This movement has also been accompanied by a phenomenon of platformisation of the web, which has established the GAFAM - the giants of the web: Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft - as unavoidable intermediaries (so-called Gatekeepers) of a web now far removed from its original purpose.

This phenomenon of platformisation also affects the cultural sector and its providers.¹ These movements of datafication and platformisation of the web are also accompanied by a massification of usage - across all age groups, including the youngest. David Bessot and Alessandro Fiorentino estimate that there are 4.11 million active users aged 12 to 17 on social media platforms in France (Insee, 2022).² With an estimated usage time of 2.9 hours per day, a 13-year-old in France will, over the course of a year, spend more time in front of a phone than in front of a teacher. Instagram, WhatsApp and TikTok rank as the top three platforms preferred by young people, with 25.6 %, 12 % and 8.9 % respectively.

"The commercial strategies implemented in these computational systems provided by these companies have enabled them to become the leaders of the new attention economy. They hold a monopoly position in a captive market."³ The strategies of these platforms are particularly harmful to individuals, as they rely on science to develop strong psychological dependence among users in a highly competitive market: the attention market.⁴  

Data has thus become a central element of contemporary societies, often referred to as the "new black gold" of the 21st century. This analogy highlights its crucial importance in the global economy and its deep impact on our daily lives. In this data-saturated world, algorithms govern much of our everyday existence, influencing our decisions, behaviours, and social interactions.

Social media platforms, for instance, are built on algorithms that determine which content appears in our newsfeeds, favouring those that trigger emotional responses - thus allowing fake news to spread freely. These networks increasingly capture citizens' attention by locking them into algorithmic *"filter bubbles"*¹ that reinforce their worldview and cultural preferences. For cultural institutions, these dynamics raise both economic and ethical questions regarding their societal role and their ability to reach new audiences: how can cultural diversity be ensured in the face of algorithmic recommendations? What role should cultural venues play in preserving a democratic public space?

These bubbles also limit the possibility of engaging with otherness - except through confrontation - and make genuine debate, and even democratic functioning itself, increasingly difficult. The massive use of data has profound consequences for our democratic systems and even electoral processes, as shown by the Cambridge Analytica scandal² and, more recently, the cancellation of the first round of the presidential election in Romania. Furthermore, the large-scale collection of data by governments raises serious concerns about individual freedoms.  

In the field of human resource management, we are even seeing the emergence of algorithmic and quantitative techniques for managing employees, known as *"people analytics"*¹. The principle behind these methods is to improve organisational performance by replacing human, subjective, and insufficiently supported decisions with a rationalised (and computerised) approach to every stage of employee management - including recruitment, scheduling, performance evaluation², and even dismissal. This is a perfect embodiment of what Bruno Latour referred to as our "monsters" of management - tools that might ultimately overpower humanity itself. On a more positive note, other artificial intelligence algorithms are being used to diagnose illnesses and predict epidemics. In any case, these examples reflect the extent to which personal data has become embedded in the functioning of human societies.  

Data has become a major economic issue, transforming traditional business models across all sectors - including culture. The attention economy, in which user time and engagement are monetised, now dominates. For cultural institutions, this raises crucial questions:

• How can public attention be valued without compromising the cultural mission?
• How can data be used to enhance the audience experience while respecting their privacy?
• In such a context, how can we ensure cultural diversity and the discoverability of works and artists?
• What is the actual value of the data collected about audiences?

This is why it is so vital for cultural professionals to understand the broader societal implications of data, as well as the tools and systems that exploit it. Whether we view it with optimism or concern, data now represents a key issue - economically and in terms of capturing attention. Cultural institutions must navigate this digital landscape as effectively as possible, ensuring that their cultural vision and identity remain clearly articulated.

To explore how cultural stakeholders are using data and how they attempt to address the above questions, we invite you to continue reading the sheet "What are the practices in the performing arts?"

• (FR) Culture et numérique : pour une écologie de l’attention (external link), Rapport des auditeurs du Cycle des Hautes Études de la Culture, 2024
• (FR)  Digital 2022 : une nouvelle année de croissance exceptionnelle ! (external link) WeAreSocialXHootsuite, 2022
• (FR) Data de confiance : le partage des données, clé de notre autonomie stratégique, (external link) Think-Do-Tank Digital New Deal, 2022
• (EN) Towards a Holistic EU Data Governance (external link), Eric Pol, Olivier Dion & Antti Poikola, 2023
• (FR)  IA de confiance, opportunité stratégique pour une souveraineté industrielle et numérique (external link), Think-Do-Tank Digital New Deal 2022
• (EN) Better people analytics (external link), Paul Leonardi and Noshir Contractor, Harvard Business Review 2018
• (EN) The dark sides of people analytics : reviewing the perils for organisations and employees (external link), Lisa Marie Giermindla, Franz Strich, Oliver Christ, Ulrich Leicht-Deobald, Abdullah Redzepi, European Journal of Information Systems, 2021
• (EN) People analytics - a scoping review of conceptual boundaries and value propositions. (external link) A. Tursunbayeva, S. Di Lauro & C. Pagliari - International Journal of Information Management, 2018
• (EN) Love your monsters: Why we must Care for our Technologies as we do our children.  (external link) artice de Bruno Latour, 2011
• (FR) De l’information aux industries culturelles, l’hypothèse chahutée de la bulle de filtre (external link)- Joëlle Farchy et Steven Tallec, Questions de communication, 2023
• (FR) RGPD, un révélateur des logiques subreptices des plateformes envers la jeunesse (external link), David Bessot and Alessandro Fiorentino, Revue française des sciences de l’information et de la communication, 2023
• (FR) La civilisation du poisson rouge : Petit traité sur le marché de l’attention. Bruno Patino, Grasset, 2019
• (FR) Quelle(s) réponse(s) à l’enjeu d’acculturation aux données ? Un état de l’art des caractéristiques de la data literacy (external link), Ugo Verdi, Revue française des sciences de l’information et de la communication, 2023
• (FR)  Les Plateformes à la Conquête des Industries Culturelles. (external link) Olivier Thuillas et Louis Wiart, PUG., 2023
• (FR) Plateforme et abus de position dominante : la détermination du pouvoir des plateformes au service de leur régulation (external link), Kaïna Amaouche, Droit, 2021