Technically Wrong, Sara WachterBoettcher
Technically Wrong, Sara WachterBoettcher
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Technically Wrong
Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech

Author: Sara Wachter-Boettcher

Narrator: Andrea Emmes

Unabridged: 5 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/10/2017


Synopsis

Buying groceries, tracking our health, finding a date: whatever we want to do, odds are that we can now do it online. But few of us ask how all these digital products are designed, or why. It's time we change that. Many of the services we rely on are full of oversights, biases, and downright ethical nightmares. Chatbots that harass women. Signup forms that fail anyone who's not straight. Social media sites that send peppy messages about dead relatives. Algorithms that put more black people behind bars.

Technically Wrong takes an unflinching look at the values, processes, and assumptions that lead to these problems and more. Wachter-Boettcher demystifies the tech industry, leaving those of us on the other side of the screen better prepared to make informed choices about the services we use—and demand more from the companies behind them.

About Sara Wachter-Boettcher

Sara Wachter-Boettcher is a web consultant based in Philadelphia and the author of two books for web professionals: Design for Real Life, with Eric Meyer, and Content Everywhere. She helps organizations make sense of their digital content, and she speaks at conferences worldwide.


Reviews

Some interesting concepts: - Normalizing - Edge vs Stress - The 'select one' being the problematic idea - The default settings of our lives (and everything else) - Q: metrics are only as good as the goals and intentions that underlie them (c) - Q: inappropriate, trying-too-hard, chatty tech product......more

Goodreads review by Vish

Why do apps and profile info pages mostly come with only two gender options - male and female? What if someone doesn't wish to be identified as either? Why is there still a vast underrepresentation of women and minorities in the tech sector? Why hasn't there been a massive MeToo rising in the tech i......more