4.3: Jason A. Clark

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Professor, Head, Special Collections & Archival Informatics, Montana State University Library http://www.jasonclark.info

At the risk of wearing the tinfoil hat, I’m suggesting that the first thing people need to know about algorithms and their impact is that many of our everyday decisioning systems are applying algorithmic processes. Insurance coverage decisions, medical analytics, credit card eligibility decisions are increasingly subject to these computational rules. The technological turn in our society, which let me be clear, I have built my career within and love the potential of this turn, makes algorithms an everyday fact. Abstaining from social media or making informed decisions while participating in common technologies will not fully protect you. As for next steps, we have recognized within our Algorithmic Awareness project work¹²⁷ that teaching around the primary concepts and introducing essential data literacies that underpin algorithms is a start, but it’s not enough. Beyond basic algorithmic literacy, three approaches come to mind: transparent tools, regulation, and technological watermarks. First, we need to start building and introducing tools where transparency about data use and computational decisions is a feature, not a bug (e.g., see tools like the Brave Web browser or the DuckDuckGo search engine). Second, we need more regulation like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which asserts and confers the “right to explanation” (a right to information about individual decisions made by algorithms).¹²⁸ And finally, we need to consider how technological watermarks such as public/private key fingerprints or an array of byte sequences within files could “watermark” when files have been subjected to algorithmic processes or enhancements (e.g., in the era of deep fakes, this digital authenticity fingerprint will be an essential marker).

References

Jason A. Clark, “RE:Search - Unpacking the algorithms that shape our UX.” Deliverables include a teaching curriculum, syllabus, and a software prototype that demonstrates algorithms in action, https://github.com/jasonclark/algorithmic-awareness
Margot E. Kaminski (2019), “The right to explanation, explained,” Berkeley Technology Law Journal 34(1), DOI: https://doi.org/10.15779/Z38TD9N83H

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