The paper “The Open Prison of the Big Data Revolution: False Consciousness, Faustian Bargains, and Digital Entrapment” written by Ojelanki Ngwenyama, Frantz Rowe, Stefan Klein (long-time member of our department and recent retiree), and Helle Zinner Henriksen, was awarded the ISR Best Paper Award 2025. The paper addresses the fact that, while some scholars warn of the social harms caused by Big Data practices, there is a little critical social theory (CST) Information Systems research has been conducted into the structures and dynamics that drive these practices.

In this research, the authors examine how tech firms strategically shape social practices and platform design to encourage individuals to accept datafication and data assetization. While these strategies create positive network effects for companies, they often produce negative outcomes for individuals – including privacy violations, economic loss, and reduced freedom.

Drawing on the work of Heidegger and Marcuse, the paper introduces concepts such as false consciousness, digital entrapment, and Faustian bargains to explain how people become socially conditioned into a digital habitus and identify as homo digitalis, seeing all their social and economic relations as digital. The study uses the case of Microsoft Viva to illustrate how even everyday digital tools can shape reality and tether users to platforms, creating what the authors call an open prison.

The paper offers both a critique of the Big Data paradigm and a research agenda aimed at understanding and addressing the social consequences of these practices. It encourages further research into solutions that can reduce digital entrapment and protect freedom, privacy, and individual agency in the digital age.

The full paper can be found here.

43.000 Studierende, 8.000 Beschäftigte in Lehre, Forschung und Verwaltung, die gemeinsam Zukunftsperspektiven gestalten – das ist die Universität Münster. Eingebettet in die Atmosphäre der Stadt Münster mit ihrer hohen Lebensqualität zieht sie mit ihrem vielfältigen Forschungsprofil und attraktiven Lehrangeboten Studierende und Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler aus dem In- und Ausland an.

In part 20 of the Alumni Stories, we feature Dr. Maik Lindner, who studied Information Systems at the University of Münster, where he also earned his doctorate. After completing his academic training, his career first took him to SAP in Belfast, followed by further positions in international technology companies such as Virtustream and TidalScale. Today, as Chief Information Security Officer and Innovation Lead at the U.S.-based health-tech company OMNY Health, he is responsible for the strategic development of security architectures and the implementation of innovative technologies in healthcare.

In Teil 20 der Alumni Stories porträtieren wir Dr. Maik Lindner, der an der Universität Münster Wirtschaftsinformatik studierte und dort auch promovierte. Nach seiner akademischen Ausbildung führte ihn sein Weg zunächst zu SAP nach Belfast, später zu weiteren Stationen in internationalen Technologieunternehmen wie Virtustream und TidalScale. Heute verantwortet er als Chief Information Security Officer und Innovation Lead beim US-amerikanischen Health-Tech-Unternehmen OMNY Health die strategische Weiterentwicklung von Sicherheitsarchitekturen und den Einsatz innovativer Technologien im Gesundheitswesen.