Wake up, humans! Our data crisis is really a humanity crisis

From bias to greed: the many data exploits

“What I may see or hear in the course of treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about.” — Hippocratic Oath.

Are we in the middle of a data crisis, or have we, as a society, merely unveiled a more profound issue with our human values and behaviours? I think both. This article discusses the idea that the root of our “data crisis” is not in the numbers, bytes, or systems, but deeply embedded in our human interactions, decisions, and ethics as well as informed by our seeming obsession with data. And now, data is in control.

Siri, are you listening?

In 2017, as I sat in our living room with my family, planning a summer holiday to Europe, it became a turning point in our lives, one that we would call back to but reduced to the joke that “Siri is listening; shhh.” We laugh it off but it is not laughable for two Gen-Xers, one with Luddite tendencies with only one image of him on the…