The AI systems that power the internet — from digital advertising to facial recognition — have a huge impact on billions of lives. But often, it’s left up to individuals to navigate the risks of these technologies. With few laws and accountability measures, internet users often must work together and share knowledge in order to mitigate harms.
Today, Mozilla Fellow Narrira Lemos is launching A Caravana.Tech — a collection of research and videos that explain how facial recognition, credit scoring, and other AI-related issues can negatively impact consumers in Latin America. And, how individuals can take a caravan approach — working together — to stay safe online.
The site is available in English, Español, and Português.
A Caravana.Tech breaks down issues into four categories: Body and Surveillance (e.g. facial recognition technology); What Is It Worth? (e.g. automated credit scoring); Digital Infrastructure (e.g. how the internet works); and It’s A Trap! (e.g. online misinformation).
In Body and Surveillance, a 10-minute film showcases how the technology works; how it can cause discrimination, bias, and error; and how it can intersect with issues like migration. In What Is It Worth?, the project examines how individuals’ credit intersects with topics like consent and Big Data.
The two remaining sections will publish in the coming weeks.
Narrira is a Brazil-based Mozilla Fellow embedded at Derechos Digitales, where she researches the spread of misinformation in Latin America. Before joining Mozilla, Narrira worked as a digital security trainer, project manager, and UX researcher pursuing efforts to strengthen safe and sustainable practices for privacy and security aligned with social justice.
Says Narrira: “Algorithmic decision making can affect everything from what credit we are offered and what we buy, to what content we see online and who gets elected to public office. In Caravana Tech, we want to tell other stories about the time we live in, to change narratives, to create ways to resist, and to promote more secure services, tools and knowledge for those that are working to build a better world with social justice.”
More than ever, we need a movement to ensure the internet remains a force for good. Mozilla Fellows are web activists, open-source researchers and scientists, engineers, and technology policy experts who work on the front lines of that movement. Fellows develop new thinking on how to address emerging threats and challenges facing a healthy internet. Learn more at https://foundation.mozilla.org/fellowships/.