“In my current role, I see up close how technology is beginning to transform industrial sectors that play a huge role in our economy and in our lives: energy, aviation, transportation, health care. For an economist, this is highly unusual, and it’s extremely exciting, because this is a transformation as powerful as the Industrial Revolution and more, and before the Industrial Revolution, there was no economic growth to speak of.” (Marco Annunziata, TED@BCG San Francisco, October 2013)
Digital Society – A Threat or a Possibility?
KEY RISKS IN AN OPEN DIGITAL SOCIETY 1. Loss of Privacy and Surveillance 2. Data Breaches and Cyber security Threats 3. Power Imbalance and Exploitation 4. Lack of Transparency 5. Digital Inequality 6. Cross-Border Data Risks
GDPR = The General Data Protection Regulation The risks of an open digital society are real and structural—not just technical. GDPR demonstrates that strong regulatory frameworks can reduce these risks, but they must evolve continuously alongside technology. GDPR addresses this through principles like data minimization and purpose limitation, requiring organizations to collect only necessary data and use it for explicit purposes.(ChatGPT)
SWOT analysis of Risks of Digital Society and GDPR created by ChatGPT
I asked the artificial intelligence (AI) ChatGPT to help me with the question of GDPR and open Digital Society, in order to better conceptualise the real problems and risks we are dealing with the Internet of Things and widely spread digitisation of our work environments, data collection, sharing and collecting personal data. I also asked ChatGPT to make a SWOT analysis diagram and we can see in the image that even though there are many advantages, there are also many threats to us as people and to our society.
We can possibly agree that digital environment is exciting and full of creative opportunities, fast data sorting, and turning words into entertaining images with a short command; the risks such as identity theft, hacking banks and other institutions are enormous and must be dealt with strict rulings and regulations, such as GDPR.
Now the idea of strict regulations may lead to stronger surveillance by the governments and institutions, and it becomes a huge risk for those not participating in the digital platforms. Digital “world” becomes a kind of a parallel world with our natural world, where one can’t access their money, buy or own things, travel, interact without strong identification and adding their personal data into the systems.
Elderly, youth and children are mostly not participating in these environments. Other groups who have no skills, knowledge or means of access to digital environments are at great risk of being secluded from the natural society. It means that we are turning our physical world into data made of binary code without all of us being part of it. This question of seclusion is an important one to solve quickly, if we want to prevent catastrophic divide in our societies.
I accessed the page General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance Guidelines and found some great ideas and insights on how I can comply with e.g data protection and working remotely. It also has practical advice on how to ask to delete one’s data.
Employment Services in 2026 and Digital Services
As an Employment Advisor my main role is giving educational info and study options as well as career advise to people who are seeking to find work or are changing careers. Data protection is part of my daily work, as we have many rules and restrictions on entering people’s data into our systems. For example we do not store health related documents nor are we allowed to use Teams-chat to discuss any client’s situation.
My work is mainly done in face-to-face contact and over the phone as well as video calls. Because I work with people who are at risk of isolation from other people and the digital world, I must address this with them one-on-one as we must assess their ability to perform on digital platforms. Sometimes it means that I must teach, other times I can guide the person to participate in workshops for various things such as updating CV, learning about use of AI in job applications and the selection process, developing basic skills to use email, smart phone, and of course to use our main site Työmarkkinatori.fi. (Job Market Finland).
There have been many legislative changes this year with social grants and benefits relating to my clients. Also the new “Job Seeker Profile” has been made compulsory from coming Fall from 1st of September, if one is registered in our administrative system as a job seeking client. The idea is to match employers with applicants with AI-assisted key words, such as professional titles, education and such.
I asked ChatGPT about my work and what it knows about it, and here are the Q&A:
Q: What does an Employment Advisor do in Finland?
A: “In Finland, an employment advisor (often called a TE advisor through the public employment services) works with job seekers and employers to help people find work and stay employed. These services are mainly provided by the TE Services (Työ- ja elinkeinopalvelut). Overall, their role is a mix of career coach, case manager, and gatekeeper for unemployment support.”
The above answer was somewhat correct. Apparently this AI doesn’t know that the TE-Services were abolished in December 2024 – January 2025 when the Finnish Government transferred the governing duties of employment services to cities and counties.
Q: is Työmarkkinatori.fi a safe and easy to use site for unemployed people?
A: Short answer: yes — it’s safe, official, and generally easy to use, but like any government service, your experience depends on what you expect from it.
Summary by ChatGPT:
Työmarkkinatori.fi is a safe and official Finnish government service used by unemployed people to manage job searching and employment-related matters. It’s secure (uses strong identification like bank ID) and widely trusted. In terms of usability, it’s generally easy for basic tasks like searching jobs and managing your profile. However, some users find it a bit bureaucratic or confusing at first, since it’s closely tied to unemployment benefits and official requirements. Overall: it’s a reliable and useful platform, but more of a practical tool than something that actively finds jobs for you
Self evaIuation: I had plenty of previous knowledge and understanding of digitisation, digitalization and digital transformation; the risks of an open digital society, including issues like privacy loss, data breaches, and surveillance. I studied what the General Data Protection Regulation stands for and how it helps to address risks through rules on data protection and user rights. I watched the videos and found them educational. I will explore the topics further as I enjoy continually developing my knowledge on Cyber security and AI.
My work is clear and well-structured, and I included some critical thinking by discussing both strengths and limitations and included a SWOT diagram to study the threats and possibilities. I could improve this topic by adding more real-life examples, and developing deeper analysis of global challenges and future developments.
