Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech and Our Fight for an Independent Future

by Anita Say Chan

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.

The first book to draw a direct line between the datafication and prediction techniques of past eugenicists and today's often violent and extractive "big data" regimes.
 
Predatory Data illuminates the throughline between the nineteenth century's anti-immigration and eugenics movements and our sprawling systems of techno-surveillance and algorithmic discrimination. With this book, Anita Say Chan offers a historical, globally multisited analysis of the relations of dispossession, misrecognition, and segregation expanded by dominant knowledge institutions in the Age of Big Data.
 
While technological advancement has a tendency to feel inevitable, it always has a history, including efforts to chart a path for alternative futures and the important parallel story of defiant refusal and liberatory activism. Chan explores how more than a century ago, feminist, immigrant, and other minoritized actors refused dominant institutional research norms and worked to develop alternative data practices whose methods and traditions continue to reverberate through global justice-based data initiatives today. Looking to the past to shape our future, this book charts a path for an alternative historical consciousness grounded in the pursuit of global justice.

Genres: Nonfiction

264 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 7, 2025

Reviews

[James Igoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea, eugenics, and modern information capture, at first seems a stretch, but in the course of other readings, on Bayesian thinking and the eugenic underpinning of modern statistics, or histories explored in Superior: The Return of Race Science, the rise of anti-immigrant Trump, and most recently the racist writings of Musk underlings, this starts to make sense. It is dense reading, and heavily researched. Also, simplifying some of the ideas for me comes down to questioning the agenda that is being set by tech companies and the drive for AI.

I really wanted to like this book, but the tedium overwhelmed me...

[M]

This book is really interesting but really dense. I was enjoying it, but it was different than I expected and the language takes so long to absorb. Chapter two is so hyper-specific that I put it down to read something lighter and I don’t think I’ll pick it back up again.

[Amelia Arsenault · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a useful resource for those interested in challenging the conventional assumption that more data is inherently beneficial. The first three chapters provide a thorough overview of the longstanding history of eugenics in data extraction and analysis. The following chapters highlight efforts to resist the prioritization of productivity, efficiency, and innovation by instead emphasizing community. While these later chapters present examples of important activist work, they sometimes felt disconnected from the book's earlier emphasis on eugenics.

The epilogue discusses these concepts within the context of AI and the contemporary digital moment. I found this section and the idea of "improbable worlds" particularly interesting and I wished that it had been more fully developed and integrated throughout the book.

One major limitation is accessibility. The writing is quite verbose and relies on jargon that may be unfamiliar to more casual readers. Given the relevance and importance of these issues, more accessible writing may have allowed the book to be more impactful.

[Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

It did take me a month to get through but part of that was to take my time and actually ruminate on the information Chan gives throughout.

This book definitely is a must read when looking into intersectionality and how the digital sphere influences that. Its a good history lesson in eugenics and how eugenics influences our usage of the internet.

I did not expect to get so emotional while reading such an academic book but the notion of "improbable worlds" really just helped fan that fire of hope for a better one.

[Juno ✦ · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book was super dense, but it was filled with a lot of crucial context and well-researched information. it was, admittedly, a bit of a struggle to get through sometimes, but it was entirely worthwhile. it definitely doesn’t pretend to be a super accessible text and comes out guns blazing as a robust, academic work, but for those who can parse through it, i would argue this is a goldmine of very applicable and very important history, information, and roadmap to navigate the past and modern perils of data and technology.

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very academic and dense, but a great read. My favorite part is the conclusion. You might need a little bit of interest in the topic coming into reading it, but if you have that, you’ll learn a lot about the history of eugenics, specific anecdotes, and the future of techno-eugenicism. It left me with a lot of answers, but also a lot of questions!