We, the Data

A rallying call for extending human rights beyond our physical selves—and why we need to reboot rights in our data-intensive world. Winner of the 2024 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy Shortlisted, 2024 Lionel Gelber Prize Our data-intensive world is here to stay, but does that come at the cost of our humanity in terms of autonomy, community, dignity, and equality? In We, the Data, Wendy H. Wong argues that we cannot allow that to happen. Exploring the pervasiveness of data collection and tracking, Wong reminds us that we are all stakeholders in this digital world, who are currently being left out of the most pressing conversations around technology, ethics, and policy. This book clarifies the nature of datafication and calls for an extension of human rights to recognize how data complicate what it means to safeguard and encourage human potential. As we go about our lives, we are co-creating data through what we do.