English

Beyond Our Behavior: The GDPR and Humanistic Personalization

Computers and Society 2020-09-01 v1 Human-Computer Interaction

Abstract

Personalization should take the human person seriously. This requires a deeper understanding of how recommender systems can shape both our self-understanding and identity. We unpack key European humanistic and philosophical ideas underlying the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and propose a new paradigm of humanistic personalization. Humanistic personalization responds to the IEEE's call for Ethically Aligned Design (EAD) and is based on fundamental human capacities and values. Humanistic personalization focuses on narrative accuracy: the subjective fit between a person's self-narrative and both the input (personal data) and output of a recommender system. In doing so, we re-frame the distinction between implicit and explicit data collection as one of nonconscious ("organismic") behavior and conscious ("reflective") action. This distinction raises important ethical and interpretive issues related to agency, self-understanding, and political participation. Finally, we discuss how an emphasis on narrative accuracy can reduce opportunities for epistemic injustice done to data subjects.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2008.13404,
  title  = {Beyond Our Behavior: The GDPR and Humanistic Personalization},
  author = {Travis Greene and Galit Shmueli},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2008.13404},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

submitted to FAccTRec 2020 workshop

R2 v1 2026-06-23T18:12:06.526Z