Let us talk about algorithmic consent. Why something called “informed consent” holds great value in a world where artificial intelligence is growing in significance and is looking to impact everything that exists.

Well, for the firsts, we should know that consent is a fundamental constituent of privacy as far as AI applications are concerned. While you might be already familiar with the term “consent” and its prosaic use in everyday life, however, the term consent is a lot more subtle and nuanced when we consider it from a technological perspective, and it is certainly a lot layered than merely “accepting all cookies.”

There has been a lot of talk about privacy lately, and the debate has only intensified, and the users are now a lot more careful with the kind of data that they share online and how app developers and social media sites can illegally track their activity using that information for digital marketing and targeted ads purposes. All the industries have witnessed a paradigm shift in the way people have started to notice the cultural, industrial, and legal impacts that their data pose to society in general. So, sharing, securing, and perceiving in a “consensual” and “moral” way becomes imperative, and violation of it can lead to scandals with Cambridge Analytical and Facebook being the real-life examples.

Users are now a lot more careful with the data they input; however, there has been a continuous influx of information, and a lot of business industries ranging from healthcare, corporate to education are now adapting to the introduction of the new asset. The creation of this gigantic size of user data has led to an extremely new branch of study known as big data, and it is no secret that it will have drastic implications in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The way big data is utilized for AI research work on the principle of 3 V’s- Volume, Velocity, and Variety. It means that researchers have to care of the fact that the amount of data being stored should be large enough, the rate at which the influx of data should be optimal enough for dynamic AI output, and also the fact that data is coming from different kinds of sources to make the technology flexible and smarter prognosticator.

All the studies have suggested that AI prototypes give an ideal output when they are exposed to a more diverse and multi-faceted input. And, thus it brings the key concept of privacy and compliance into the forefront of discussion. We know quite well that as AI becomes smarter and efficient in handling the data, it can potentially attempt to manipulate user data to obtain its objective, which is not surprising, but it brings attention to the massive privacy concerns that users have with the big data-powered smart AI technology.

There are a lot of reports that third-party sites permit the use of consumer’s online activity and other information for digital marketing and targeted ads considerations. However, it could potentially lead to more hazardous implication with the whole 2016 scandal of Cambridge Analytica-Facebook showing that not all data taken by the third-party sites are for mere monetary and targeted ads purposes, and the way the term “consent” is put forward is more imperative than anything else hosted by the site. Furthermore, many of these sites are also unwilling to share the information that they have on you, which also raises much more alarming suspicions and a very intense debate. And, the way the data gets re-used, organized, or even manipulated for use other than what was promised during the “consent” raises the question of whether developers or third-party interest should explicitly re-state the purpose and again ask for consent.

Well, it is looking unlikely that the issue of privacy will be resolved soon, and while the stance of consumers remain firm that their need for privacy cannot be compromised, it is up to the business organization to change their data collection policies and introduce changes which benefit both the organization and the user. The primary example of this is the iOS 14.5 update, in which Apple introduced a key privacy alteration to win over all the users and make the competitors like Facebook reconsider its business strategies, which they are unwilling to do so for now.

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