Announcement

Re: “Big Data: A Tool for Inclusion or Exclusion?”

Seeta Peña Gangadharan, danah boyd, Solon Barocas

In this letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute is joined by Data & Society and Solon Barocas, an independent researcher, in asking the FTC to address the ethical problems, legal constraints, and technical difficulties associated with building a body of evidence of big data harms, the issue of whether intentions should matter in the evaluation of big data harms, and the unique context of vulnerable populations and implications for problem solving and taking steps to protect them.

The letter was submitted in response to an FTC request for comments in advance of its workshop, Big Data: A Tool for Inclusion or Exclusion?