MIT grad student Joy Buolamwini was working with facial analysis software when she noticed a problem: the software didn't detect her face -- because the people who coded the algorithm hadn't taught it to identify a broad range of skin tones and facial structures. Now she's on a mission to fight bias in machine learning, a phenomenon she calls the "coded gaze." It's a talk about the need for accountability in coding ... as algorithms take over more and more aspects of our lives.
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How I'm fighting bias in algorithms
Facebook Lets Advertisers Exclude Users by Race
Facebook’s system allows advertisers to exclude black, Hispanic, and other “ethnic affinities” from seeing ads.
A computer program used for bail and sentencing decisions was labelled biased against blacks. It's actually not that clear
OMPAS, is used nationwide to decide whether defendants awaiting trial are too dangerous to be released on bail. In May, the investigative news organization ProPublica claimed that COMPAS is biased against black defendants.
Yahoo Secretly Scanned Customer Emails for U.S. Intelligence - Sources
Yahoo Inc last year secretly built a custom software program to search all of its customers’ incoming emails for specific information provided by U.S. intelligence officials.
Just & Unjust Targeted Killing & Drone Warfare
What It’s Like to Be a Black Woman in Tech: A Q&A with Kaya Thomas
In this Q&A with former Facebook employee Kaya Thomas, she discusses what it’s been like to work as a Black woman in tech in her internships and what top companies should be doing to attract minority candidates like her.
98 Personal Data Points that Facebook uses to Target Ads to You
A list of some (but not all) of the data points Facebook uses to target ads for users, which begs to question of if the tracking and bundling of information that Facebook does is really benevolent or not.
Disputed territories: where Google Maps draws the line
Outrage followed the (misleading) news that Google had removed label for Palestine from its map service – but borders are rarely as simple as cartographers might like.
Sites Spying on You in Weird New Ways, Princeton Study Exposes
A Princeton study analyzed of one million websites, and reveals the newest breed of site snoopers are tracking everything from battery level to your fonts, and it doesn't need cookies to do so.
Your Favorite Website Might Be Discriminating Against You
Studies have shown that people are being treated differently online based on their race, actual or perceived. Websites have been found to use demographic data to raise or lower prices, show different advertisements, or steer people to different content.