Civic Tech Field Guide
Sharing knowledge and productively growing the fieldAdjacent Fields > Ethical tech and responsible tech - (237)
While the first generations of tech-for-good work took a solutionist approach to addressing existing problems with new technology, scholars and activists are driving growing awareness of the problems with technology itself. By exposing the negative consequences, intended or otherwise, of tech, these communities draw attention to issues with tech-centric approaches. Not all of the projects here adopt an ethics lens in their work, but we use it here for simplicity's sake.
Suggested reading:
- 10 things we should all demand from Big Tech right now, Vox (2019)
- Technology Ethics in Action: Critical and Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Edited by Ben Green.
Showing 237 Results
Mnemonic is an NGO dedicated to archiving, investigating and memorializing digital information documenting human rights violations and international crimes.
What Builders Struggle With While Innovating With Data Governance
Mozilla, East Evelyn Avenue, Mountain View, CA, USAMozilla Foundation survey of builders' perceptions of data governance
UNI Global Union's Top Ten Principles for Workers' Data Rights fills an enormous gap with regards workers' rights in the new world of work.
Ethical OS Risk Mitigation Manual
Institute for the Future, Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, CA, USAMost tech is designed with the best intentions. But once a product is released and reaches scale, all bets are off. The Risk Mitigation Manual presents eight risk zones where we believe hard-to-anticipate and unwelcome consequences are most likely to emerge.
Judgment Call is an award-winning game and team-based activity that puts Microsoft’s AI principles of fairness, privacy and security, reliability and safety, transparency, inclusion, and accountability into action.
Digital Life Initiative at Cornell Tech
Cornell TechWe explore societal perspectives surrounding the development and application of digital technology, focusing on ethics, policy, politics, and quality of life. 2017
The Digital Lab Fellowship is a paid, non-resident opportunity to uncover and address emerging consumer harms in the digital world
The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP)
New York University, New York, NY, USAS.T.O.P. at NYU fights to end discriminatory surveillance.
Coded Bias follows M.I.T. Media Lab computer scientist Joy Buolamwini, along with data scientists, mathematicians, and watchdog groups from all over the world, as they fight to expose the discrimination within algorithms now prevalent across all spheres of daily life.
Report a dark pattern today. It will help us fight back against companies usingmanipulative dark patterns to take our private information, money, andtime. You deserve respect, online and off.
Reset Australia
AustraliaThe unregulated attention economy driving social media is fraying our democracy, threatening our mental and physical health, and exposing our children to violent and disturbing content.
Everyone is talking about AI, but how and where is it actually being used? We've mapped out interesting examples where AI has been harmful and where it's been helpful.
We want to change the way the internet enables the spread of news and information so it serves the public good over corporate and political interests.
GovLab NYU's Collection of Lectures on the Ethical implications of Data and Artificial Intelligence from Different Perspectives
Access Now defends and extends the digital rights of people and communities at risk. By combining direct technical support, strategic advocacy, grassroots grantmaking, and convenings such as RightsCon, we fight for human rights in the digital age.
My Data Rights
South Africa (South Africa, Afrika-Borwa, Suid-Afrika)A feminist review of AI, privacy and data protection to enhance digital rights
PIT Lab @Stanford
Stanford University, Serra Mall, Stanford, CA, USAThe PIT Lab is building a thoughtful community around public interest technology at Stanford. Themes include systemic inequities, democratic values, bridging the divide, career pathways.
Adding additional products to users’ shopping carts without their consent.
DEDA helps data analysts, project managers and policy makers to recognize ethical issues in data projects, data management and data policies.
Mechanism Design for Social Good (MD4SG) is a multi-institutional initiative using techniques from algorithms, optimization, and mechanism design, along with insights from other disciplines, to improve access to opportunity for historically underserved and disadvantaged communities.
Permission Slip
Yonkers, NY, USAOne app to take back control of your data
How The New York Times Thinks About Your Privacy
New York Times Building, 8th Avenue, New York, NY, USAA guide to the news company's data usage
This list of resources is curated and maintained by MERL Tech and The Engine Room.
Feminist.AI works to put technology into the hands of makers, researchers, thinkers and learners to amplify unheard voices and create more accessible AI for all.
A Popular Science piece with key takeaways educational section
Celebrating purpose & mission-driven work from people, companies and organizations worldwide.
A project by AlgorithmWatch that maps frameworks that seek to set out principles of how systems for automated decision-making (ADM) can be developed and implemented ethically
Harvard Democracy and Internet Governance Initiative (DIGI)
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USAThrough public reports and briefings with policymakers, business leaders, and civil society organizations, the Initiative will highlight digital platform reform options, as well as offer expertise on legislative reform proposals and platform self-governance options.
*privacy not included
Mountain View, CA, USAMozilla Foundation's annual naughty and nice list of consumer tech's privacy policies
Clinic to End Tech Abuse (CETA)
New York CityThe Clinic to End Tech Abuse (CETA) helps survivors of intimate partner violence end tech-related abuse.
The Distributed AI Research Institute is a space for independent, community-rooted AI research free from Big Tech’s pervasive influence.
Principles for Digital Development
United Nations FoundationA set of guidelines that help development practitioners integrate established best practices into technology-enabled programmes.
Block Party app
United States of America (the)Consumer tools for online safety & anti-harassment. Automatically hide unwanted tweets & mute the trolls (review later, but only if you want!).
We are a community of integrity professionals—the people who build platforms to be better.
Just Tech Fellowship
United States of America (the)The Social Science Research Council's Just Tech Fellowship supports and mobilizes diverse and cross-sector cohorts of researchers and practitioners to imagine and create more just, equitable, and representative technological futures.
The Privacy Principles for Mobility Data are a set of values and priorities intended to guide the mobility ecosystem in the responsible use of data and the protection of individual privacy.
The ODI's white paper on ethical data policies
Journal of Online Trust and Safety
Stanford University, Serra Mall, Stanford, CA, USAThe Journal of Online Trust and Safety is a cross-disciplinary, open access, fast peer-review journal that publishes research on how consumer internet services are abused to cause harm and how to prevent those harms.
The Tech Worker Handbook is a collection of resources for tech workers who are looking to make more informed decisions about whether to speak out on issues that are in the public interest
World Bank Data for Better Lives report
Washington, DCCovering data for social good, data governance, and societal-level data considerations
Co-op Foundation
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the)The Co-op Foundation helps disadvantaged communities overcome their challenges by putting co-operative values into practice. It aims to stimulate and strengthen community action that connects and empowers people so they can work together to make things better.
JAAKLAC initiative
Finland (Suomi)Reseaching and advocating for critical digital education and youth participation from Latin America and the Majority World
Data & Society Research Institute
Data & Society Research Institute, West 20th Street, New York, NY, USAData & Society is a research institute focused on the social and cultural issues arising from data-centric technological development.
Global Network Initiative
718 7th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20001, USAProtecting and advancing freedom of expression and privacy in information and communications technologies.
European AI & Society Fund
Rue Royale 941000, Brussels, BelgiumThe European AI Fund is a philanthropic initiative to shape the direction of AI in Europe
Digital Impact
Stanford University, Serra Mall, Stanford, CA, USADigital Impact (formerly Markets for Good) is an initiative of the Digital Civil Society Lab to improve the data infrastructure for social good and help civil society organizations use digital resources safely, ethically and effectively.
DATAJUSTICE project
Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, UKThis project explores the meaning of social justice in an age of datafication
Bail-setting algorithms in Philadelphia
PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia should think twice about its risk-assessment algorithm.
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