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

A Revealing Look At How Tech Industry Bias And Blind Spots Get Baked Into Digital Products--and Harm Us All. 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 Why All These Digital Products Are Designed The Way They Are. 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. Sara Wachter-boettcher Takes An Unflinching Look At The Values, Processes, And Assumptions That Lead To These And Other Problems. Technically Wrong 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.--dust Jacket. Welcome To The Machine -- Culture Misfit -- Normal People -- Select One -- Delighted To Death -- Tracked, Tagged, And Targeted -- Algorithmic Inequity -- Built To Break -- Meritocracy Now, Meritocracy Forever -- Technically Dangerous. Sara Wachter-boettcher. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. A revealing look at how tech industry bias and blind spots get baked into digital products—and harm us all. 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. “An entertaining romp that tells us where and why the tech industry, once America’s darling, went wrong, and what it might do to recover its good graces.” —Tim Wu, author of The Master Switch 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 realize just how many oversights, biases, and downright ethical nightmares are baked inside the tech products we use every day. It’s time we change that. In Technically Wrong, Sara 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 to demand more from the companies behind them. A Wired Top Tech Book of the Year A Fast Company Best Business and Leadership Book of the Year