Data Literacy Education Framework – Part 1

What do we need to do to increase the data literacy of our organization?

In a world where your personal data, and the preferences and biases buried in that data, are being used to influence your behaviors, beliefs, and decisions, data literacy becomes an indispensable fundamental skill.  And it’s not just corporations that need this training.  Data Literacy should be taught in universities, in high schools, in middle schools and even in adult education and nursing homes.

Data literacy training needs to educate EVERYONE into how their personal data is being collected, analyzed, and used, so as to not be duped into actions, behaviors, and beliefs by organizations and people who understand how to manipulate your personal data to their benefit.

But what are the educational requirements that comprise a data literacy curriculum? To facilitate that data literacy education for my students, I’ve created the Data Literacy Education Framework that provides a holistic synopsis on the data and analytic training requirements – subject matter areas – for everyone to become data literate (Figure 1).

Let’s explore each of the Data Literacy Education Framework subject areas as part of a two-part series on Data Literacy.  Then using this framework, we can construct an educational curriculum including testing to measure and subsequently raise the Data Literacy IQ of everyone (which I’ll have to cover in a future blog…or maybe a future book).

In my blog “The Growing Importance of Data and AI Literacy – Part 1”, I talked about the importance of data awareness and how everyone needs to become aware of how organizations are gathering, analyzing, and using their personal data.

Data Awarenessis understanding how organizations are capturing, analyzing, and using your personal data (e.g., demographic, commercial transactions, financial holdings, health and exercise, entertainment, political, and social data) to identify and codify personal behaviors and preferences that can be used to influence your actions, behaviors, and beliefs.

While most of us intrinsically know that organizations are capturing data about us, it’s the “invisible data” (or “obscured data”) that is buried in the fine print of that website or mobile app End-User Licensing Agreement that is most troubling (Figure 2).

Case in point is Google, who exploits or “monetizes” your data in the following ways[1]:

Many organizations, like Google, provide “value” in return for your personal data such as free email, free social media platforms, personalized web experiences, free online games, free navigational services, and product and service discounts (in the case of loyalty programs).  It’s just that users need to be aware that there is a “price” for these “free” services, even if the price isn’t as obvious as a monthly subscription fee.

What can one do to protect themselves? The first step is an awareness of where and how organizations are capturing and exploiting your personal data for their own monetization purposes. Be aware of what data you are sharing via the apps on your phone, the customer loyalty programs to which you belong, and your engagement data on websites and social media.