Seth Vargo wrote code used in a platform called Chef. When he learned ICE was a customer, he wrestled with ICE using code he had personally written.

This article argues that feminist standpoint epistemologies help us rethink both the process by which archival value is determined and the archivists’ role in that process, leading towards a new methodology, epistemology, and political strategy for appraisal, which I call “feminist standpoint appraisal.” Feminist standpoint appraisal inverts dominant appraisal hierarchies that value records created by those in power to justify and consolidate their power at the expense of records created by the oppressed to document and resist their oppression and imagine liberation. As such, feminist standpoint appraisal explicitly and unapologetically gives epistemological weight (thereby assigning value to) records created and preserved by, and potentially activated in service to, those individuals and communities oppressed by capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. Furthermore, feminist standpoint appraisal shifts our thinking about the position of the archivist, from a purportedly objective “view from nowhere” (which in fact belies a dominant but unnamed white male position), towards a socially located, culturally situated agent who centers ways of being and knowing from the margins. In valuing the unique insights gleaned by people on the margins, feminist standpoint appraisal refuses the notion that archivists from oppressed communities must overcome their positionalities to meet institutional goals and professional demands for neutrality, but rather, values and leverages the insights gained from outsider status, viewing the attendant insights as assets, rather than as detriments, to the archival endeavor. Furthermore, feminist standpoint appraisal calls on archivists who inhabit dominant identities to acknowledge their oppressor standpoints and actively work to dismantle them. Pre-print first published online 08/26/2019

Data & Society Researchers Jacob Metcalf, Emanuel Moss, and Founder and President danah boyd investigate the tensions that arise when adapting ethics initiatives at Silicon Valley tech companies. “By talking with people who are at the forefront of thinking through ethics from within the technology sector, we found that the commitment to ethics is in […]

Biometric systems used by ICE to round up migrants and separate families didn’t come from nowhere. They’ve been built over decades by both parties.

In a new memoir and interview, the world’s most famous whistle-blower elucidates as never before why he stood up to mass surveillance—and his love for an internet that no longer exists.

Google-savvy reputation consultants will cover up arrests, poor customer reviews, and other image-killing content for the right price.

Schools are adding ethics classes to their computer-science curricula. The reading assignments: science fiction.

Student Activism Now Documented

Following an investigation into Santa Cruz Public Libraries’ use of Gale Analytics on Demand, a California grand jury reported on June 24 that the use of data analytics tools by libraries “is a potential threat to patron privacy and trust.”

Rather than enshrining mottos like “data is the new oil” into the vocabulary of tomorrow’s future technology leaders, perhaps we should emphasize “privacy first” and focus on how companies can absolutely minimize the data they collect to ensure a more privacy-protecting and less Orwellian future.

Nice application of schools of ethics to ethical reasoning, and why "an ethics code" doesn't solve the problem.

Ever more Americans are using digital cameras to keep an eye on elderly relatives who live in nursing homes. This surveillance may violate patients’ privacy and demoralize their caretakers.

Ethics washing is unethical, but some AI companies aren't afraid to engage in the practice. Here are some ways to avoid it.

Would be interesting to analyze this for its approach to ethics. I see a lot of deontology.

The e-mail startup isn’t the only company learning that a product can be powerful and elegant without being good.