Many of us now expect our online activities to be recorded and analyzed, but we assume the physical spaces we inhabit are different. The data broker industry doesn't see it that way. To them, even the act of walking down the street is a legitimate data set to be captured, catalogued, and exploited.
Interpretation
Our physical movements are also considered data by businesses, just like our online activities.
This quote sheds light on the pervasive nature of data collection in today's world, emphasizing that not only our online actions are being monitored and analyzed, but also our physical movements in public spaces. The data broker industry does not distinguish between physical and digital interactions; instead, it views every action, including simply walking down the street, as valuable data to be gathered, organized, and monetized.
In practice
Discussing privacy concerns at a technology conference.
If you're not thinking about the way systemic bias can be propagated through the criminal justice system or predictive policing, then it's very likely that, if you're designing a system based on historical data, you're going to be perpetuating those biases.
We need to be vigilant about how we design and train these machine-learning systems, or we will see ingrained forms of bias built into the artificial intelligence of the future.
As we move into an era in which personal devices are seen as proxies for public needs, we run the risk that already-existing inequities will be further entrenched. Thus, with every big data set, we need to ask which people are excluded. Which places are less visible? What happens if you live in the shadow of big data sets?
Only by developing a deeper understanding of AI systems as they act in the world can we ensure that this new infrastructure never turns toxic.
It is a failure of imagination and methodology to claim that it is necessary to experiment on millions of people without their consent in order to produce good data science.
The fear isn't that big data discriminates. We already know that it does. It's that you don't know if you've been discriminated against.
Our goal is to make the best devices in the world, not to be the biggest.
The next great technology revolution might be around the corner, but it won't automatically improve most people's lives. That will depend on politics, which is indeed ugly but also inescapable.
But there's so much kludge, so much terrible stuff, we are at the 1908 Hurley washing machine stage with the Internet. That's where we are. We don't get our hair caught in it, but that's the level of primitiveness of where we are. We're in 1908.
I believe those that produce the least emissions in autos will also be those who have the greatest success worldwide.
The future is green energy, sustainability, renewable energy.
New technologies, however remarkable they might seem, are fundamentally just tools made by people for people.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.