Karen Levy is a sociologist and lawyer. Her research investigates how digital technologies are used to enforce rules and laws, with particular focus on the normalization of electronic surveillance within social and organizational relationships. Her dissertation examined the emergence of electronic monitoring in the U.S. trucking industry. Karen is a research fellow at NYU’s Information Law Institute. She holds a PhD from Princeton University and a JD from Indiana University Maurer School of Law.
Karen Levy
All Work
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Academic Article
first mondayAbstract: The user has become central to the way technology is conceptualized, designed, and studied in sociotechnical research and human-computer interaction; recently, non-users have also become productive foci of scholarly a... Read on first mondayNovember 2015 -
Longform
Pacific StandardD&S fellow Karen Levy published an essay on measurement in Pacific Standard's The Future of Work and Workers series: As data analytics and monitoring technologies come to be used in more and more workplaces, we must be att... Read on Pacific StandardAugust 2015 -
Academic Article
PLOS One"In the social sciences, there is a longstanding tension between data collection methods that facilitate quantification and those that are open to unanticipated information. Advances in technology now enable new, hybrid methods... Read on PLOS OneMay 2015 -
video
Tech Policy Lab University of Washington"As policy concerns around intelligent and autonomous systems come to focus increasingly on transparency and usability, the time is ripe for an inquiry into the theater of autonomous systems. When do (and when should) law and p... Read on Tech Policy Lab University of WashingtonApril 2015 -
Longform
MediumD&S fellows Karen Levy and Tim Hwang ask after the ethics of design theater. Excerpt: "A machine’s front stage performance gets enacted through design. Just as a human provides front stage cues through her appearance and... Read on MediumApril 2015 -
Academic Article
Taylor & Francis Online"This article examines the implications of electronic monitoring systems for organizational information flows and worker control, in the context of the U.S. trucking industry. Truckers, a spatially dispersed group of workers wi... Read on Taylor & Francis OnlineMarch 2015 -
video
The Agenda with Steve Paikin"Algorithms are a part of our daily lives, impacting everything from our Internet searches, to our credit scores, healthcare and policing. As they become more ubiquitous, The Agenda asks whether we should allow ourselves to be ... Read on The Agenda with Steve PaikinMarch 2015 -
CBC"According to [D&S fellows] Karen Levy and Tim Hwang, the metaphors we use to describe our digital life matter, because the metaphors we use have baggage. In a recent article, 'The Cloud' and Other Dangerous Metaphors, the... Read on CBCFebruary 2015
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Longform
The AtlanticExcerpt: "What’s more, metaphors matter because they shape laws and policies about data collection and use. As technology advances, law evolves (slowly, and somewhat clumsily) to accommodate new technologies and social norms ar... Read on The AtlanticJanuary 2015 -
Longform
The AtlanticIn this piece, Data & Society fellow Karen Levy criticizes the oversimplifications of technological tools that attempt to "solve" rape. "It’s encouraging to see techies trying to address knotty social issues like sexual vio... Read on The AtlanticOctober 2014