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Data & Society studies the social implications of data-centric technologies & automation.

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We produce original research on topics including AI and automation, the impact of technology on labor and health, and online disinformation.

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The Latest from Data & Society

Announcement
Welcoming Data & Society's 2022–23 Faculty Fellows
"Data & Society is pleased to welcome Lindsey D. Cameron and Christina N. Harrington to our 2022–23 Faculty Fellowship Program. The program will benefit from their expertise as they conduct rigorous interrogations of data-inten...
Points
An Intersectional Approach to Digital Humanitarianism
"In an increasingly globalized technosocial ecosystem, humanitarians use data collection, automation, and technologies to respond and adapt. But these interventions leave much to be desired."
Jenna Imad Harb
Points
Blockchain for Refugees
"Blockchain-based digital wallets were meant to empower refugee women. The reality was more complicated."
Margie Cheesman
Announcement
Welcoming Data & Society's 2022–23 Faculty Fellows
Points
An Intersectional Approach to Digital Humanitarianism
Jenna Imad Harb
Points
Blockchain for Refugees
Margie Cheesman

About Us

Data & Society is an independent nonprofit research organization. We believe that empirical evidence should directly inform the development and governance of new technology. We study the social implications of data-centric technologies and automation, producing original research that can ground informed, evidence-based public debate.

We combine academic rigor with creative outreach to connect, convene, and sustain expert and practitioner networks. Since 2014, Data & Society has defined the field with original research and programming to break down disciplinary silos and connect provocative thinkers across sectors. Read more

Spotlights

The Datafied State

Our emerging research agenda explores governments' use of tech and how that use transforms the bureaucracy.

Research Agenda
The Datafied State
Jenna Burrell and Ranjit Singh
Policy Brief
Electronic Visit Verification: a Guide to Intersecting Harms and Policy Consequences
Serena Oduro, Brittany Smith, Alexandra Mateescu
Report
Poverty Lawgorithms: a Poverty Lawyers Guide to Fighting Automated Decision-Making Harms on Low-Income Communities
Michele Gilman

AI in the Majority World

We are reframing the existing worldview of the Global South by insisting that the region is not a passive recipient of AI and tech but one with great potential for AI innovations.

Storytelling Workshop
Parables of AI in/from the Global South
This groundbreaking workshop used storytelling to explore new insights on the sociotechnical implication of artificial intelligence and digital IDs in the Global South.
Perspectives
Towards a Mindful Digital Welfare State
In this series, researchers Ranjit Singh and Emnet Tafesse begin to explore what mindful appropriation of digital technologies in the provision of welfare services looks like.
Blog Post
Critical Digital Education for All
Uruguayan sociologist Soledad Magnone discusses the impact of the digital divide on Latin America and the Caribbean.

Technology and the Pandemic

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Data & Society has brought together voices on topics such as health misinformation, low-wage and gig economy workers, and racial disparities in COVID-19's impact, reporting, and analyses.

Essay
New Digital Infrastructures of Workplace Health and Safety
Aiha Nguyen discusses the state of workplace surveillance as a result of COVID-19.
Blog Post
Vaccine Passports and Pandemic Racism
Joan Mukogosi identifies strategies that will make the road to herd immunity more equitable.
Event, Video
The Fact of Blackness
Kenyon Farrow and Tamara K. Nopper discuss strategies for demanding & using race-focused data during the pandemic.

Engaging Industry

What responsibility do tech companies have to the public interest? Data & Society researchers provide new frameworks to foreground ethics and equity in the design and development of new technologies.

Report
Good Intentions, Bad Inventions
Amanda Lenhart and Kellie Owens dismantle four common myths about our relationship to technology.
Report
Ethics Owners
Emanuel Moss and Jacob Metcalf present a new model of organizational responsibility in data-driven tech companies.
report
Assembling Accountability: Algorithmic Impact Assessment for the Public Interest
Emanuel MossElizabeth Anne WatkinsRanjit SinghMadeleine Clare ElishJacob Metcalf

Race and Equity

Data & Society is committed to advancing racial equity in the design and governance of emerging technologies. Our work ranges from suggesting strategies to promote racial literacy and anti-racism in tech, to critiquing frameworks that forgo the lens of racial justice.

Report
Advancing Racial Literacy in Tech
Jessie Daniels, Mutale Nkonde, and Darakhshan Mir urge tech companies to adopt racial literacy practices in order to break out of old patterns.
Review
Sounding the Flat Alarm
Sareeta Amrute reviews Shoshana Zuboff's "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism."
Article
Those designing healthcare algorithms must become actively anti-racist
Kellie Owens and Alexis Walker list steps to enable anti-racist practices in medical research and practice.