We, The Data
Human Rights in the Digital Age
(MIT Press, 2023)
FIP 140
Our data-intensive world is here to stay, but does that come at the cost of our humanity in terms of autonomy, community, dignity, and equality? In We, the Data, Wendy H. Wong argues that we cannot allow that to happen. Exploring the pervasiveness of data collection and tracking, Wong reminds us that we are all stakeholders in this digital world, who are currently being left out of the most pressing conversations around technology, ethics, and policy. This book clarifies the nature of datafication and calls for an extension of human rights to recognize how data complicate what it means to safeguard and encourage human potential.
As we go about our lives, we are co-creating data through what we do. We must embrace that these data are a part of who we are, Wong explains, even as current policies do not yet reflect the extent to which human experiences have changed. This means we are more than mere “subjects” or “sources” of data “by-products” that can be harvested and used by technology companies and governments. By exploring data rights, facial recognition technology, our posthumous rights, and our need for a right to data literacy, Wong has crafted a compelling case for engaging as stakeholders to hold data collectors accountable. Just as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights laid the global groundwork for human rights, We, the Data gives us a foundation upon which we claim human rights in the age of data.
(Description Source: MIT Press)
Authors
Wendy H. Wong is a professor of Political Science at UBC Okanagan. She received her PhD in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego. Her main research interests lie at the crossroads of International Relations and Comparative Politics. She is interested in the politics of organization, why human beings choose to act collectively, their choices to go about doing it, and the effects of those choices. Research interests include: human rights, humanitarianism, international law, social movements, indigenous politics, the rights of ethnic minorities, and the role of networks. Her research has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Successful Societies research program. Her book, Internal Affairs, was published by Cornell University Press in 2012.
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Paper ISBN: 9780262048576
eBook ISBN: 9780262376389
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