BIG DATA AND DIGITAL NUDGING. INSIGHTS INTO FREEDOM OF CHOICE, SUSTAINABILITY AND CYBERSECURITY

Abstract

The collection, processing and analysis in real time of personal data, daily activity of the large digital plays that dominate the private sector, can also play a fundamental role in the public sector to plan, monitor and make responsible decisions in view of a truly inclusive, democratic and participatory development. The use of sophisticated data mining techniques can allow Governments to obtain increasingly detailed and timely information on which to build better intervention strategies in every field (social, economic, environmental), to then verify their effectiveness. However, to safeguard the freedoms and rights of individuals, which may be harmed by unlawful or arbitrary processing of data concerning them, the great opportunities offered by big data analytics must be set within a framework of sustainability and technological security guided by the principle of accountability. This is even more accurate since behavioral economics have removed the paradigm of absolute rationality of homo œconomicus, highlighting the cognitive errors inherent in its very nature, bias of the mind that facilitate mechanisms of libertarian paternalism (or neuromarketing) able to silently alter the formation of wills, although they are often legitimized starting from the purported purpose of improving individual and collective well-being. If so, quis custodiet ipsos custodes?