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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
Data & Society Welcomes Dr. Charlton McIlwain to its Board of Directors
Dr. Charlton McIlwain is a long-time friend of Data & Society, having served as an Advisor to the organization since 2015. He is a preeminent scholar on the intersections of race, digital media, and racial justice activism.
New Report
Report
Puppet Entrepreneurship: Technology and Control in Franchised Industries
Remote data monitoring means that franchisees might not exercise true entrepreneurial control. This distinction, says report author Brian Callaci, can be a model for regulating the gig economy.
Brian Callaci
Call for Participation
The Hustle Economy: Race, Gender, and Digital Entrepreneurship
Hosted by Sareeta Amrute, Tressie McMillan Cottom, and Lana Swartz, this program focuses on workshopping theoretical, historical, and methodological contributions to the understanding of hustle economies and their embodiments.
Apply by March 1, 2021
Announcement
Data & Society Welcomes Dr. Charlton McIlwain to its Board of Directors
New Report
Report
Puppet Entrepreneurship: Technology and Control in Franchised Industries
Brian Callaci
Call for Participation
The Hustle Economy: Race, Gender, and Digital Entrepreneurship
Apply by March 1, 2021

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

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
Understanding medical uncertainty in the hydroxychloroquine debate
Smitha Khorana and Kellie Owens explain how social media companies arbitrate health information.
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.
Blog Post
Looking for Race in Tech Company Ethics
Emanuel Moss and Jacob Metcalf identify where race and tech ethics intersect.

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.