Mitigating Algorithmic Harms

Technology continues to permeate societal structures at a rapid pace. Even as exciting advancements prompt questions about future frontiers, a dark side of tech has emerged as a threat to equity, privacy, and civil rights. Machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), and websites and apps that collect consumer data present many potential avenues for discriminatory outcomes. The unprecedented growth of this technology poses challenges for regulators in their attempts to keep the law current. The absence of federal privacy laws disproportionately impacts marginalized communities, who suffer the greatest harms from overly invasive technology. The lengthy history of surveillance of communities of color lends context to the discussion on data privacy and civil rights. What initially began as government efforts to track civil rights leaders now takes the form of digital surveillance through technology. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), for example, employed a data analytics company to build profiles for and track undocumented immigrants. Police precincts are engaging AI algorithms to develop “predictive policing” systems likely to increase over-policing in majority-minority neighborhoods. Beyond surveillance concerns, discrimination due to emergent technologies has trickled into the housing and employment spheres. Automated decision-making systems that assess tenants or job applicants often deny applicants of color on the basis of biased algorithms. Because programmers create technology such as AI and machine learning, their biases are easily embedded into what should be a neutral process for creating outcomes. With so much potential to perpetuate discrimination, what can be done to curb technology’s hidden harms, and how can regulators respond proactively? The Federal Trade Commission is laying the groundwork for rulemaking on commercial surveillance and data security, which scholars hope will bolster data collection protections for marginalized communities. The proposed American Data Privacy and Protection Act could be another powerful step forward in solidifying privacy as a civil right for all, as the bill would set requirements for AI bias testing and limits the amount of user data companies can collect. In this week’s Saturday Seminar, scholars discuss the pressing need for federal privacy protections for marginalized communities