Paper | Thomson, Eggert: Expressing preferences for data use
slides-aicontrolws-expressing-preferences-for-data-use-00

Machine learning systems depend on access to large amounts of data. A number of
existing models that have been created based on data that has been gathered from
websites. This data is often obtained without the permission of the people who might
have a stake in how that data is used. The debate about this practice is obviously difficult,
as it needs to balance the societal benefits that come from the resulting models and the
interests of people who hold a stake in the information that is used. Political debate on
this topic is very important, but is quite complex. How this debate will ultimately resolve
is unclear, but one point that is widely accepted is the need for a means for stakeholders
to opt out of having their data ingested for model training. That is, there is value in
giving people the means to express their preferences about the use of their data. We
identify requirements for a mechanism and conclude that a simple textual signal is most
appropriate.