TikTok on Netflix personalization (Rohan - non-core post)

https://www.tiktok.com/@nilenochill/video/7157536854093401387

This TikTok is a simple, helpful explanation of how algorithmic personalization has evolved beyond what we read about in the weeks on data/AI and surveillance. Some of readings (Chun, Cheney-Lippold) talked about how how personal information such as demographic data gets plugged into machine learning models and algorithms, and that Cambridge Analytica represented an escalation to psychographic data based on behavioral science. This creator describes psychographic targeting with a different level of abstraction. They explain how the artwork you see on Netflix isn't based on your own personal information or even on your own behavior, but rather on the behavior of people who behave similar to you. 

This reminded me of the discussion we had—prompted by Tania, I believe—about Andrejevic's assertion that environmental surveillance is only concerned with populations. According to this creator's explanation, the role of the individual is primarily to serve as a source of information about other individuals. While individual-level data collection and personalization still occurs, then, the dominant logic is largely formed on the level of groups and populations. In other words, my relationship to Netflix is not only based on my own datafication, but also on my contribution to predictions about other people who Netflix believes are likely to be similar to me, and this personalization is achieved using categories of data that, according to data protection laws like GDPR/CCPA, are "non-personal information".