Maintenance of data mining and brokering is also a continuous problem throughout the tech industry. Some companies hold that this data mining is used for operationalization or for compliance with their national jurisdictions’ law enforcement and legal requirements. However this data brokering has at its core revenue profitability and expansion89. These numerous cases are only a tiny segment of the colossal issues we face, especially in respect to those at the margins. No small fixes can address the larger and deeply rooted structural issues that foreground how these technologies are deployed or weaponized. However, in centering, consulting, and understanding the legal, social, and political issues that impact decentered and marginalized groups some protections can be provided. Some of that mitigation might be in the form of identifying that certain technologies should not exist as they perpetuate harm by design. Even in these cases, if we consult with those groups who are most targeted, disenfranchised, marginalized and criminalized, we can build better organizing plans and strategies to challenge and navigate these technologies.
Decentered Cases: A Decentered Design 1. Definition of decentered cases Decentered cases are ones that involve decentered users who are identified as groups most at risk and under-supported in the contexts in question. These groups are also usually the most criminalized compared to general users with many protections, other marginalized users and users with specific needs (who are generally protected). The name decentered plays with the notion that these users should not be at the margins but instead hold central power - they have not only been displaced from the center due to broader systems at play, but also by the companies and technologies. The term embodies the concept of movement, and a call for the de-centered to be moved to their rightful place at the center of these processes. 89
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Hernandez, A., 2021. Utility Giants Agree to Stop Selling Data to ICE But Some Loopholes Remain. [online] WTTW News. Available at: <https://news.wttw.com/2021/12/16/utility-giants-agree-stop-selling-data-ice-some-loopholesremain> [Accessed 6 April 2022]. Electronic Frontier Foundation. 2019. EFF Sues AT&T, Data Aggregators For Giving Bounty Hunters and Other Third Parties Access to Customers’ Real-Time Locations. [online] Available at: <https:// www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-sues-att-data-aggregators-giving-bounty-hunters-and-other-third-parties-access> [Accessed 6 April 2022]. Fix It Already. 2019. Fix It Already. [online] Available at: <https://fixitalready.eff.org/ slack/#/> [Accessed 6 April 2022].
Design From the Margins
