The datafied citizen

An increase in the ability of governments and corporations to collect data coupled with a new norm of data sharing raises questions about the relationship between data privacy and citizenship in no small part because it has become evident that it is through this data that citizens are being quantified and governed. Research on privacy since the Snowden revelations has taken a more discursive turn, looking at public and media discourse rather than focusing on privacy regulation as a behaviour. This chapter suggests that a critical social psychological approach to digital citizenship can build on this work, concentrating on the nuanced and often “dilemmatic” ways that digital privacy and participation are made sense of and performed by citizens. Examining what citizens are “doing” through talk in terms of positioning themselves as good digital citizens but also acknowledging the common-sense ideas and imaginaries that permeate how citizens negotiate privacy rights and justify privacy loss.