Talla, 139
tech industry. See also specific companies
acquisition value of user data, 96–98
backlash against, 191–193, 199
companies’ efforts to improve diversity, 22–26, 182–184
and culture fit, 24–25, 189
and democracy, 9–10, 149, 154, 165–166
desire to avoid oversight, 187–189, 199
educational pipeline for, 21–26, 181–184
failure to serve people, 4, 8–9, 11–12, 18
and gender bias, 6–7, 7, 13–21
growth of, 2–3, 9
importance to marginalized populations, 195–197
lack of diversity in, 9, 11, 14, 16, 18–20, 116, 135–136, 150, 157–158, 169, 171–176, 182, 196
as meritocracy, 173–177, 180
mystification and exceptionalism of, 9, 11–12, 26, 143, 188, 191–193, 199
prioritization of programming skill, 172, 176
and racial bias, 13, 17–18, 20, 200
responsibility for collected personal data, 146
techno-paternalism, 176
text strings, to personalize online content, 86–87
Theranos, 187
Thiel, Peter, 199
Thomas, Kaya, 22–24, 26, 191
Thune, John, 165
Timehop, 79–80, 83
Times New Roman font, 37
titles and nobility, 66–67, 71
Tolia, Nirav, 68, 73–74
training data, 145–146, 171
transgender people. See LGBTQ community
Trending Facebook feature, 149, 165–169, 172
trolls, 59, 148–149, 157, 159, 163
Trump, Donald, 9–10, 148, 154, 164–165, 179, 199
Tumblr, 85–87, 86
Twitter
abuse and harassment on, 147–149, 151–154, 156–160, 170
and Americans’ online status, 1
birthday decoration of posts, 81–82, 82, 96–97
creators’ values and biases, 150, 158–160
early diversity of, 155–156
and list addition notifications, 159
organizing principle of, 154–155, 161
and problems with personal names, 53–54
renaming of, 2
and Donald Trump, 10, 154
and Milo Yiannopoulos, 150–154, 157
Uber, 105–109, 143, 177–180, 187–189, 191–192, 198–199
US Census, 60
Venkatasubramanian, Suresh, 145
venture capitalists, 174–175
voice, to personalize online content, 87, 89–90
Vosmek, Sharon, 175
Walmart, 27
Warzel, Charlie, 157
Washington, Annie Campbell, 68
Weapons of Math Destruction (O’Neil), 112
weight tracking, 77–79, 78, 79
We Read Too app, 22
West, Lindy, 147–149, 151, 154
What Facebook Thinks You Like browser extension, 103
White supremacy, 141–142
Wiener, Anna, 192
WiFi, and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, 3, 3
Wikipedia, 141, 161
Williams, Ev, 87
Williams, Maxine, 19, 22
Withings, 77–79, 78, 79
Word2vec, 138–142, 145
word-embedding systems, 138–141
WordPress, 183
Ye, Ryan, 31
Year in Review Facebook feature, 4–6, 5, 79, 83
Yelp, 123–125
Yiannopoulos, Milo, 150–154, 157
Young, Indi, 46–47
Young, Michael, 174
YouTube, 2
Zomorodi, Manoush, 130
Zuckerberg, Mark, 108, 169–171, 199
Zuckering, 108–109
Zunger, Yonatan, 133, 135
ALSO BY SARA WACHTER-BOETTCHER
Content Everywhere
Design for Real Life (with Eric Meyer)
Copyright © 2017 by Wachter-Boettcher Consulting
p. 41: © 2016 National Public Radio, Inc. NPR news report titled “Designing
New Products With Empathy: 50 Stress Cases To Consider” by Libby
Bawcombe as originally published on https://npr.design/ on August 16, 2016,
and is used with the permission of NPR. Any unauthorized duplication is
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Title: Technically wrong : sexist apps, biased algorithms, and other threats of toxic tech / Sara Wachter-Boettcher.
Description: First edition. | New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, independent publishers since 1923, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017031829 | ISBN 9780393634631 (hardcover)
Subjects: LCSH: System failures (Engineering) | Business failures. |
Technology—Social aspects. | New products—Moral and ethical aspects.
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