Designing for addiction – feeding the fan-base Julia Hörnle, Professor in Internet Law, Queen Mary University of London

1. Designing for Addiction
Online- Legal & Ethical
Boundaries
DR JULIA HÖRNLE
PROFESSOR OF INTERNET LAW
J.HORNLE@QMUL.AC.UK
QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

2. Drivers for profit?
▪Advertising as dominant “free” content business model online,
AVOD
▪Addiction??? UK Chief Medical Officer’s Report on impact on
Young People’s Mental Health
▪ PERSUASIVE DESIGNS Online Harms White Paper (Apr 2019)
▪Attracting eyeballs & retaining them
▪Immersive environment
▪Constant play
▪Profiling

3. Profiling & targeting of
individuals
-Using user profiles to retain viewers
-INPUT
▪Targeted video suggestions (consumer retention)
▪Targeted advertising
-OUTPUT
▪Profiling users on the basis of the videos they select-
monetizing users’ profiles from data generated on the
platform

4. GDPR Profiling
▪Profiling, defined in Art 4 (4)
▪But no specific regulation of profiling – normal conditions of
processing in GDPR apply
▪Art 22 regulates the specific case where profiles are used for
automated decision-making affecting the individual in a
significant way

5. Legal & Ethical Consideration
-GDPR
-Fair and lawful processing principles
-Informed consent or legitimate objective
-Privacy by design/privacy by default
-Inferences as private data

6. Legal & Ethical Consideration
--Information Commissioner’s Office Fine of £500,000
against Facebook October 2018 (use of data analytics
for political purposes)
“The ICO’s investigation found that between 2007 and
2014, Facebook processed the personal information of
users unfairly by allowing application developers access
to their information without sufficiently clear and
informed consent, and allowing access even if users had
not downloaded the app, but were simply ‘friends’ with
people who had.” ICO

7. Legal & Ethical Consideration
-The wider picture: big data, profiling, automated
decision-making?
-Cambridge Analytica scandal, use for political
advertising and voter manipulation
-Discrimination: employment, insurance, banking
-Price discrimination
-Profiles used for crime & terrorism prevention in an
illegitimate way

8. Legal & Ethical Considerations
-Fair commercial practices- fairness?
-Individual autonomy
-Challenge: complexity of the advertising landscape and
the “free content” business model