Everyday life in the Digital Risk Society

As the digitalization of society unfolds, individuals are increasingly exposed to digital risks events that they have no control over. Most people are aware of the digital risks of identity theft, data privacy breaches, misinformation and fake news. However, the internet of things, the digitalization of vehicles, home appliances (televisions, refrigerators, washing machines), doorbells and home security cameras, all expose individuals to digital risks events of which most of us are unaware. And these days, you don’t get to choose an appliance that is not internet ready because they already come like that from the manufacturers.

Governments are also digitalizing: from citizen’s identity documents (passports, driver’s licenses, etc.) and  everyday service interactions  to critical infrastructure. These systems collect data about our everyday activities, but we have no voice in decision making about what is digitalized, what data are collected  and how they are stored and used. Furthermore, data aggregators collect data on individuals from a variety of sources (loyalty cards, tech companies, internet service providers) to sell to any buyer.

The objective of this study was to develop an understanding of this complex social problem of ordinary citizens’ digital risk exposure in the emerging digital risk society. Recent public management challenges from digital risk events at credit card companies, banks and critical infrastructure have made it clear that as societies, we need to develop strategies for managing them. Such digital risk events generate fear and feelings of helplessness among citizens which undermine trust in government institutions, regulation and actions.

In this study, we examined a set of risk events on a high-profile digital infrastructure to tease out core issues of the problem. We examined the roles of key stakeholders, news media, tech companies and involved government officials in shaping narratives of emerging digital risk events. The research findings offer insights to help government officials develop robust public management communication strategies for defending the credibility of institutions and allaying the fears of citizens when serious digital risk events occur.

To learn more, see the full article:

Ngwenyama, O., Henriksen, H., and D. Hart (2021) Public Management Challenges of The Digital Risk Society: A Critically Analysis of the Public Debate on Implementation of the Danish NemID (external link, opens in new window) , European Journal of Information Systems, Manuscript DOI: 10.1080/0960085X.2021.1907234