Right to Read Without Being Read

The impact of digitalization on privacy is obvious in many parts of society, including the collection of behavioural data of readers who access literature through digital means (e-books, audiobooks). This data can provide a lot of personal information about the reader (e.g. reading speed, time spent reading, opinions and interests linked to one’s book selection) and in combination with other collected data creates a very detailed picture of a person's lifestyle and movement patterns. In this position paper, I discuss ethical implications related to the use of large commercial data sets consisting of sensitive personal data in humanities and social sciences research. The ethical implications are explored through the lens of two case studies on digital reading behaviour. By raising ethical questions related to the study of reading, user consent, and legal certainty in the fast-developing information society, I present issues that there is an urgent need for the academic community to discuss to make sure good research practices are in place even when using new types of data and digital methods. I highlight current privacy and power asymmetry issues between the stakeholders in the research process, especially the users-turned-research subjects, and argue that the research community must assume a larger ethical responsibility when applying novel data-driven methods.