Can machines be biased? What laws and regulations are there to protect me against discrimination from automated decisions? How can we build more fair, equal, and equitable technologies?
These are the sorts of questions that I attempt to answer in my research. As a PhD researcher in Computer Science at the University of St Andrews, I am interested in the intersections of law, technology, privacy, and ethics. I work on finding out the real life applications of how regulations, policies, and technologies impact our daily lives. Whether it is about contact tracing and health, education and algorithms, or discussions around how companies use our personal data more generally, in our data-driven society, it is increasingly difficult for individuals to control and manage their personal data.
While these issues affect everyone, women and people of colour are impacted more severely by algorithmic decision making and data driven solutions. Starting with higher education, in the 2018-19 academic year, only 29% of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) graduates were female. In work, according to a 2018 report by Engineering UK, only 8.1% of people working in engineering were from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups. As a result, it is no surprise that our technologies and digital devices are neglect the experiences of women and people of colour.
As part of Pass The Mic, I would like to help demystify how our personal data are being used, shedding light of the data injustices that everyone, especially women and people of colour, face in their daily lives. While it might be easier and more exciting to discuss topics about artificial intelligence or algorithms, the discrimination through the digital divide also includes conversations about internet access, data infrastructures, and access to technologies. These are the areas that need the most work in order to ensure that we can all benefit from digital innovations. Although we cannot get rid of all discriminatory and unethical technology in a day, we can put pressure on technology platforms to stick to ethical codes of practice, ask companies to stop funding predatory technologies, and choose to support technology that is transparent in not only its code but also in its labour, manufacturing, and environmental practices.
If you have any topic you are curious about, please get in touch! To find out more about my work, please visit my website janiswong.org and let’s connect on Twitter @janiswong_.