My Data Rights

Through the eyes of a feminist, the intersections of Artificial intelligence, privacy, and data protection are explored in the African region.

The existent injustices that marginalized groups and sexual minorities face shape how they experience technology, policy, and regulation – either to achieve social justice or increase current inequalities and harms.

In the era of AI based innovations such as automated decision making and algorithms this context is important to understand how we can safeguard against harms and injustices while using these technologies to dismantle barriers of oppression. The development, implementation and governance of AI based innovations, especially around data that is fed into them, raises important questions on their impact on society and digital rights.

This report focuses on South Africa highlighting the discourse shaping perception of AI; the concerns with gender such as a lack of agency and control; perceived concerns and the responsiveness of the Protection of Personal Information Act to AI and gender issues. The recommendations highlight feminist intervention that various stakeholders can engage with on policy and regulation, research, public awareness and responsibility of technical community.