Ideas worth spreading

What tech companies know about your kids

2,042,001 views |

Veronica Barassi |

TEDxMileHigh

• November 2019

The digital platforms you and your family use every day -- from online games to education apps and medical portals -- may be collecting and selling your children's data, says anthropologist Veronica Barassi. Sharing her eye-opening research, Barassi urges parents to look twice at digital terms and conditions instead of blindly accepting them -- and to demand protections that ensure their kids' data doesn't skew their future.

The digital platforms you and your family use every day -- from online games to education apps and medical portals -- may be collecting and selling your children's data, says anthropologist Veronica Barassi. Sharing her eye-opening research, Barassi urges parents to look twice at digital terms and conditions instead of blindly accepting them -- and to demand protections that ensure their kids' data doesn't skew their future.

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About the speaker

Veronica Barassi

Veronica Barassi

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Veronica Barassi campaigns and writes about the impact of data technologies and artificial intelligence on human rights and democracy.

Meredith Broussard | MIT Press, 2018 | Book

Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World

We are fascinated by the possibility of "intelligent machines," machines that can surpass human nature, machines that can solve our problems, and eliminate our weaknesses. Yet this is often only a dream. In this fantastic book, Meredith Broussard demonstrates that our understanding of artificial intelligence is in fact based more on myths, dreams and expectations rather than reality. This is a must read for anyone who is interested in understanding the impacts of AI in our data-driven world, and how much could go wrong if we believe in the accuracy and power of AI technologies.

Cathy O'Neil | Broadway Books, 2017 | Book

Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy

Today algorithms are used everywhere to profile and judge us, and to make data-driven decisions about our lives. Yet algorithms are not objective nor neutral, but they are human made, and hence always biased and inaccurate. This book is of key importance for anyone who is interested in the fallacy of algorithms and in the social inequalities and real-life harms that they can cause.

Virginia Eubanks | St. Martin's Press, 2018 | Book

Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor

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Helen Nissenbaum | Stanford University Press. 2009 | Book

Privacy in Context: Technology, Policy, and the Integrity of Social Life

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This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxMileHigh, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.

Stay informed by accessing the latest, cutting-edge research from AI Now Institute.

Stay informed by accessing the latest, cutting-edge research from Data Justice Lab.

Support Privacy International and help them continue the fight to protect our data rights.