Data Conscience

CHAPTER 1Oppression By…

Source: Twitter, Inc.

In tech, the approach is to create a solution that works well for 80 percent of users. The remaining 20 percent have to conform, find workarounds, or suffer in silence. Those on the fringe aren't considered core demographic or essential members of the targeted population. So tech folks don't want to discuss or address racism, sexism, ableism, and otherism. Because each of these distinguishing characteristics are lifelong, minoritized people are not fully comfortable in society. In this book, we explore the role of data in digital spaces and our relationship to handling it well. The intended use of data, how it's represented in digital systems, and the resulting impact of outcomes play heavily in the moral fabric of data management. Leaning on this foundation, we'll work in ways to clarify assumptions, be more data-aware in our tech products, and flatten bad aftereffects. We'll share conditions to look out for to be more thoughtful and to carve out opportunities to make alternative design decisions.

We start head-on with oppression because it's not a new occurrence to our global society. Tech has simply reinvented it. To drive this point home, I'll describe how oppression manifests in the law and in the sciences. I share a brief snapshot of the history of oppression and how data is leveraged to solidify a social structure and order. ...