Civic Tech Field Guide
Sharing knowledge and productively growing the fieldAdjacent Fields > Ethical tech and responsible tech - (325)
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.
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Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation UK (CDEI)
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 🇬🇧The CDEI is a UK government expert body enabling the trustworthy use of data and AI.
Our mission is to advance, defend, and sustain the right to ethically study the impact of technology on society.
The World Ethical Data Forum is the only event in the world that embraces the full range of interrelated issues around the use and future of data.
European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency
Valencia (Spain)The European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency (ECAT) will contribute to a safer, more predictable and trusted online environment for people and business.
What is a more ambitious vision for data use and regulation that can deliver a positive shift in the digital ecosystem towards people and society?
Ethical Tech Collective
Berkman Center For Internet, Everett Street, Cambridge, MATo address ethics and social responsibility in technology, we believe it is important to honor the expertise of many disciplines: anthropology, computer science, critical race and gender studies, data science, design, history, human rights, law, philosophy, political science, science technology & society studies, sociology, and so much more.
Superbloom Design
New York City (NYC / New York, NY)Superbloom leverages design as a transformative practice to shift power in the tech ecosystem, because everyone deserves technology they can trust.
While each organization is responsible for its own data, humanitarians under the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) – which brings together United Nations (UN) entities, Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) consortia and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement – need common normative, system-wide guidance to inform individual and collective action and to uphold a high standard for data responsibility in different operating environments.
Data Responsibility Working Group (DRWG)
The HagueThe Data Responsibility Working Group (DRWG) is a global coordination body working to advance data responsibility across the humanitarian system.
From biometrics to surveillance — when people in power abuse technology, the rest of us suffer. Written by Ellery Biddle.
Short for “human experience,” HX is an approach to talking about, engaging with, and designing technology in a way that is aligned with our needs as humans — not users.
Responsible Tech Mentorship Program
New York stateAll Tech Is Human has developed this free program in order to help build the Responsible Tech pipeline – by facilitating connections and career development among talented students, career changers, and practitioners.
All Tech Is Human Library Podcast Series
New York City (NYC / New York, NY)The All Tech Is Human Library Podcast is a special 16-part series featuring a series of rapid-fire intimate conversations with academics, AI ethicists, activists, entrepreneurs, public interest technologists, and integrity workers, who help us answer: How do we build a responsible tech future?
Areto Analyzer (formerly ParityBOT)
Canada 🇨🇦ParityBOT is a Twitter bot that spins the abuse and toxicity directed at women in politics into positive, uplifting and encouraging messages. The artificial intelligence technology that powers ParityBOT detects and classifies hateful, harmful and toxic tweets directed at women in leadership or public office
Knowing without Seeing is a research project by Amber Sinha which explores meaningful transparency solutions for opaque algorithms, and privileges comprehension over mere access to information.
This paper identifies and addresses persistent gaps in the consideration of ethical practice in ‘technology for good’ development contexts.
The mission of the Coalition for Independent Tech Research is to advance, defend, and sustain the right to ethically study the impact of technology on society.
Decolonising Digital Rights
AmsterdamThe Digital Freedom Fund and its partner European Digital Rights (EDRi) are in the second phase of an initiative that emerged to decolonise the digital rights field.
We set ourselves a task to create a short, simple, and practical resource to help teams who are designing projects to identify potential risks and harms.
The Limits to Digital Consent: Understanding the risks of ethical consent and data collection for underrepresented communities
New York City (NYC / New York, NY)A 2021 report by SimplySecure and The New Design Congress
Coda Story reports on major currents shaping our world from disinformation to authoritarian technologies to the war on science. Coda stays on these stories to reveal why they matter, how they are connected and where they are heading next.
Omidyar Network - The Tech We Want
1991 Broadway Street, Suite 200, Redwood City, California 94063The Tech We Want is four-year, $8 million portfolio of work focused on connecting and empowering a new wave of leaders, companies, and technologies that are built on inclusivity, mutualism, sustainability, accountability, and responsible innovation.
Reorganise: 15 stories of workers fighting back in a digital age
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 🇬🇧"In only a decade, the labour market has changed beyond all recognition - from zero-hour contracts to platform monopolies - meanwhile union memberships are at historic lows."
Fraudescorekaart
Netherlands (Nederland, Holland) 🇳🇱An interactive scorecard where people can see if they would be flagged for social welfare fraud under the Netherlands' broken system
Lighthouse Reports
UtrechtPioneering Collaborative Journalism
Indigenous data sovereignty
Thailand (Prathet Thai) 🇹🇭Policy decisions on and resource allocations for IEM tend to be made with inadequate data. The focus of the IDS programme is to coordinate a transboundary effort to develop indigenous data with indigenous stewardship.
Prosocial Design Network
New York City (NYC / New York, NY)A library of design interventions to encourage prosocial behaviors online
Civics of Technology
TexasThe Civics of Technology Project shares research and curriculum and offers professional development that encourages teachers and students to critically inquire into the effects of technology on our individual and collective lives.
What the Future Wants
Brunnenstraße 9, 10119 Berlin, GermanyWhat the Future Wants is an interactive youth focused exhibition that presents different perspectives on technology from the personal, to the political, to the planetary.
Voluntary Code of Ethics - India 2019 Election
India (Bhārat) 🇮🇳Prior to 2019 elections, the Election Commission of India was able to convene representatives from top social media companies for a two-day brainstorming session on approaches to problematic social media content in elections.
The Santa Clara Principles On Transparency and Accountability in Content Moderation
United States of America 🇺🇸The Santa Clara Principles On Transparency and Accountability in Content Moderation cover various aspects of content moderation, developed by legal scholars and technologists based mostly in the United States, targeting social media companies with large use bases.
Take Back The Tech! is a call to everyone, especially women and girls, to take control of technology to end violence against women.
Facebook Digital Literacy Library
United States of America 🇺🇸The Facebook Digital Literacy Library is hosted by Facebook and currently includes learning resources made available by Youth and Media at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
Argentina's Ethical Digital Commitment
Buenos Aires"Pledge signed by political parties and technology/social network companies committing to avoiding fake news and mechanisms of disinformation that may affect upcoming elections." - Countering Disinfo
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, CAMozilla 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, CAMost 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
Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure
Amherst, MAWe’re imagining, studying, and building public spaces and public goods on the internet.
The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP)
New York UniversityS.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
Australia 🇦🇺The 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.
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Civic Tech Field Guide