Algorithms are everywhere, organizing the near limitless data that exists in our world. In an algorithmic age what identity means, how it works, how our lives are controlled by it, and how we can resist it.
Derived from our every search, like, click, and purchase, algorithms determine the news we get, the ads we see, the information accessible to us, and even who our friends are.
All these sophisticated and complex configurations create and recreate us by using our data to assign and reassign our gender, race, sexuality, and citizenship status.
They can recognize us as celebrities or mark us as terrorists. In this era of ubiquitous surveillance, we have no control over who we are algorithmically.
John Cheney-Lippold through a series of entertaining and engaging examples draws on the social constructions of identity to advance a new understanding of our algorithmic identities.
We Are Data will educate and inspire readers who want to wrest back some freedom in our increasingly surveilled and algorithmically-constructed world.
