In 2014, The Engine Room, together with a number of partners, held the first Responsible Data convening. This led to further events, a mailing list (that we still host), and a website highlighting RD community stories, insights and learnings.
What is Responsible Data? (Our working definition)
Responsible Data is the collective duty to account for unintended consequences of working with data by:
- Prioritising people’s rights to consent, privacy, security and ownership when using data in social change and advocacy efforts, and
- Implementing values and practices of transparency and openness.
Responsible Data is still an important part of our work: we implement RD principles in our research and support work, have continued to develop practitioner resources around RD, have piloted and iterated on a cohort learning programme focused on Responsible Data for social justice organisations, and continued to provide support for civil society organizations, communities and activists.
While it can seem daunting or overwhelming for social justice organisations to focus on responsible data practices alongside their day to day work and often in the face of challenges like a lack of resources, state surveillance and repression, it is precisely this context that makes responsible data practices so vital – social justice organisations have a responsibility to protect their communities and to uphold ethical standards.
One of the core guiding questions we try to bring to our conversations with partners is around the connection between data and power.
Centering power and responsible data
The community organisations we work with are generally already using data in one way or another – whether it is by collecting data for advocacy work, by conducting research about the challenges they’re communities are facing, or even by keeping information about their projects and activities (such as attendance sheet, surveys, messages and emails exchanged with peers and partners, and much more).
In practising Responsible Data, it’s important to acknowledge the power dynamics embedded in how an organisation works with the data they collect and store.
As outlined in the RD Handbook, data can “create [power], redistribute it, amplify it or disrupt it. It can entrench and privilege certain actors or perspectives, but it can also empower new voices and approaches. It can reveal and unravel atrocities, but it can also expose the vulnerable and marginalised.”
When supporting an organisation on implementing RD principles, we often try to reflect collectively with our partners on the following:
- The idea that collecting data about someone creates an “inherent power imbalance to the extent that the data collector effectively owns a commodity relating intimately to an individual”.
- The notion that data – when put in the wrong hands or used in harmful ways – can end up putting individuals and groups at risk, lead to discrimination and/or exclusion and perpetuate injustices.
- While doing their work, their audiences, or the communities they belong to and work to serve, might not be in a position to make informed decisions about how their data is collected, used or shared, or they might not be aware of the implications of their data being collected or used, have little or no awareness of their digital rights, and even less power to influence the process.
- That by engaging in responsible data principles, our partners have increased ownership and agency over their data.
We invite our partners to consider questions like:
- Who are the least powerful actors in any situation?
- How are they (or how could they be) affected by the data?
- How powerful are the people making decisions about data and technology in relation to those whose data is being collected and used?
Read more
In their excellent book Data Feminism, authors Lauren Klein and Catherine D’Ignazio propose a set of questions to interrogate power within data, such as “Who does the work (and who is pushed out)? Who benefits (and who is neglected or harmed)? Whose priorities get turned into products (and whose are overlooked)?
Using Responsible Data principles is empowering
Caring about your data is a way of regaining power. Responsible Data has the potential to disrupt harmful data practices, especially with regards to marginalised communities, and help you to regain agency and control over your data to ensure it serves your mission and empowers your work.
Responsible data can also make your work more effective: All too often, too much data is collected that isn’t necessary for analysis or the important work social justice organisations do. All this unnecessary data needs to be stored and secured, raising risks of data breaches, hacks, or misuse. It also costs money for social justice organisations, who often struggle with funding, to store all this content. And of course, there are environmental implications of collecting, storing, and processing unnecessary data, as well as developing new tools and technologies that may be unnecessary when existing tech would do.
Having less data and organised internal data practices means you also actually know what data you have. Responsible Data means you aren’t overwhelmed by noise. And can think more strategically about how to best use data for maximum impact.
By using Responsible Data principles, social justice organisations are not merely passive recipients of data extraction, but through designing responsible data collection practices, become active agents of change who hold the power to define what constitutes data, how that data is collected, and how that data is used.
By prioritising responsible data practices, you can also build trust, foster collaboration, and create safer environments for those you work with, your team, and your partners. When you decide to employ RD into your data practices, you demonstrate that you care and are thinking about your communities, peers, partners, and each other.
Ultimately, adopting responsible data practices can be a way for social justice organisations to ensure their tech practices align with their values. In thinking critically about how they collect, manage, store and share data, organisations are taking steps towards caring about digital rights and generally being accountable to those represented in the data.
Join the Responsible Data Community
As we further reflect on the role of power and responsible data, continue to refine and adapt our practices to better serve our partners and communities, and consider how emerging technologies impact data and power, we invite you to join the RD community to contribute to the conversation, and stay tuned for more discussions.
Reading list
Below are a number of resources we’ve encountered that we’re inspired by. If you’d like to read more about the ways power and data are intrinsically connected, the following resources are a great place to start:
- Data Feminism
- More than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech
- Design Justice (https://designjustice.org/)