It can refer to a recording device, like the data-monitoring systems in planes, trains, and cars.
It is particularly apt, “given its own dual meaning. To understand the problem of dark money, data brokers, proprietary methods, supercookies, trade secrecy, and the like, Pasquale uses the metaphor of the black box. And offers some ways out, “toward an intelligible society.” But even as I, like most people, eschewed the worlds of shadows and darkness, governments and businesses embraced them as sources of power and profits.įrank Pasquale, a law professor, takes us deep into these dark, often creepy worlds in The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money and Information (Harvard University Press, 2015).
I walked in the light, or so I thought, and prided myself on clarifying the confused or confusing. As for secrecy and obfuscation, I must confess I didn’t think much about them. Get over it.”), had a casual attitude toward privacy. Silicon Valley and Wall Street need to accept as much accountability as they impose on others.For some time I believed my life was pretty much an open book and therefore, like Scott McNealy (“You have zero privacy anyway. An intelligible society would assure that key decisions of its most important firms are fair, nondiscriminatory, and open to criticism. Demanding transparency is only the first step. Even after billions of dollars of fines have been levied, underfunded regulators may have only scratched the surface of this troubling behavior.įrank Pasquale exposes how powerful interests abuse secrecy for profit and explains ways to rein them in. Self-serving and reckless behavior is surprisingly common, and easy to hide in code protected by legal and real secrecy. But leaks, whistleblowers, and legal disputes have shed new light on automated judgment. Shrouded in secrecy and complexity, decisions at major Silicon Valley and Wall Street firms were long assumed to be neutral and technical. Hidden algorithms can make (or ruin) reputations, decide the destiny of entrepreneurs, or even devastate an entire economy. But who connects the dots about what firms are doing with this information? The Black Box Society argues that we all need to be able to do so-and to set limits on how big data affects our lives. The data compiled and portraits created are incredibly detailed, to the point of being invasive. Every day, corporations are connecting the dots about our personal behavior-silently scrutinizing clues left behind by our work habits and Internet use.
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