Doing data differently? Developing personal data tactics and strategies amongst young mobile media users

TLDR

Young mobile media users generate vast personal data that advertisers and other third parties exploit for profiling, raising concerns about users’ ability to understand and control its use. The study aims to cultivate conscious and resistant data agency among young users by developing critical awareness and protective practices. Through interviews and workshops with 27 adolescents aged 13–17, the authors made third‑party data‑use representations transparent to support the creation of data‑savvy tactics and strategies. The interventions, though only partially effective, reveal technical, social, and cultural barriers to data agency and suggest ways to better align user concerns with real‑world mobile media use.

Abstract

Large amounts of personal data are generated through young people’s engagements with mobile media, with these data increasingly (re)used by advertisers, content developers and other third parties to profile, predict and position individuals. This has prompted growing concerns over the ability of mobile media users to develop informed stances towards how and why their data is being used, i.e. to build ‘conscious’ and/or ‘resistant’ forms of ‘data agency’. This paper explores ways of developing the critical consciousness and resistant practices of young mobile media users towards personal data. Drawing on research with 27 young people (aged 13–17 years), the paper describes efforts to make representations of third party use of personal data openly available as a basis from which to develop data-savvy tactics and strategies. The results of these interventions – while only partially successful – offer valuable insights into the technical, social and cultural issues that shape young people’s engagement with personal data. The paper concludes by considering how concerns over data agency might be better aligned with the realities of young people’s mobile media use.