Contenu
"Much of the political discourse on data revolves around issues of privacy, surveillance, and liberty. But democracy faces an even greater peril: the ways our data technologies reproduce and generate inequalities. In Data Equals, philosopher Colin Koopman develops a robust concept of data equality that we can apply to contemporary data-driven domains to combat data's intensifying inequalities. Our activities from the most mundane to the most monumental are conducted through and transacted within data. Data have become obligatory to who we are. According to Koopman, our immersion in data demands a fuller and wider notion of data equality. Where data technology polarizes and separates us from one another, it undermines our ability to relate as equals in a democracy. Consider, for example, how certain groups are beneficiaries of data systems while other groups are prevented from being loaded onto databases that confirm rights such as the right to legally work or to receive state assistance. Data Equals presents novel methods and concepts for realizing democratic equality in data. Adopting the notion of data equality, and actively applying it to our data technologies, is necessary if democratic citizens are to become one another's data equals"--