Technically Wrong

  Talla, 139

  tech industry. See also specific companies

  acquisition value of user data, 96–98

  backlash against, 191–193, 199

  companies’ efforts to improve diversity, 22–26, 182–184

  and culture fit, 24–25, 189

  and democracy, 9–10, 149, 154, 165–166

  desire to avoid oversight, 187–189, 199

  educational pipeline for, 21–26, 181–184

  failure to serve people, 4, 8–9, 11–12, 18

  and gender bias, 6–7, 7, 13–21

  growth of, 2–3, 9

  importance to marginalized populations, 195–197

  lack of diversity in, 9, 11, 14, 16, 18–20, 116, 135–136, 150, 157–158, 169, 171–176, 182, 196

  as meritocracy, 173–177, 180

  mystification and exceptionalism of, 9, 11–12, 26, 143, 188, 191–193, 199

  prioritization of programming skill, 172, 176

  and racial bias, 13, 17–18, 20, 200

  responsibility for collected personal data, 146

  techno-paternalism, 176

  text strings, to personalize online content, 86–87

  Theranos, 187

  Thiel, Peter, 199

  Thomas, Kaya, 22–24, 26, 191

  Thune, John, 165

  Timehop, 79–80, 83

  Times New Roman font, 37

  titles and nobility, 66–67, 71

  Tolia, Nirav, 68, 73–74

  training data, 145–146, 171

  transgender people. See LGBTQ community

  Trending Facebook feature, 149, 165–169, 172

  trolls, 59, 148–149, 157, 159, 163

  Trump, Donald, 9–10, 148, 154, 164–165, 179, 199

  Tumblr, 85–87, 86

  Twitter

  abuse and harassment on, 147–149, 151–154, 156–160, 170

  and Americans’ online status, 1

  birthday decoration of posts, 81–82, 82, 96–97

  creators’ values and biases, 150, 158–160

  early diversity of, 155–156

  and list addition notifications, 159

  organizing principle of, 154–155, 161

  and problems with personal names, 53–54

  renaming of, 2

  and Donald Trump, 10, 154

  and Milo Yiannopoulos, 150–154, 157

  Uber, 105–109, 143, 177–180, 187–189, 191–192, 198–199

  US Census, 60

  Venkatasubramanian, Suresh, 145

  venture capitalists, 174–175

  voice, to personalize online content, 87, 89–90

  Vosmek, Sharon, 175

  Walmart, 27

  Warzel, Charlie, 157

  Washington, Annie Campbell, 68

  Weapons of Math Destruction (O’Neil), 112

  weight tracking, 77–79, 78, 79

  We Read Too app, 22

  West, Lindy, 147–149, 151, 154

  What Facebook Thinks You Like browser extension, 103

  White supremacy, 141–142

  Wiener, Anna, 192

  WiFi, and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, 3, 3

  Wikipedia, 141, 161

  Williams, Ev, 87

  Williams, Maxine, 19, 22

  Withings, 77–79, 78, 79

  Word2vec, 138–142, 145

  word-embedding systems, 138–141

  WordPress, 183

  Ye, Ryan, 31

  Year in Review Facebook feature, 4–6, 5, 79, 83

  Yelp, 123–125

  Yiannopoulos, Milo, 150–154, 157

  Young, Indi, 46–47

  Young, Michael, 174

  YouTube, 2

  Zomorodi, Manoush, 130

  Zuckerberg, Mark, 108, 169–171, 199

  Zuckering, 108–109

  Zunger, Yonatan, 133, 135

  ALSO BY SARA WACHTER-BOETTCHER

  Content Everywhere

  Design for Real Life (with Eric Meyer)

  Copyright © 2017 by Wachter-Boettcher Consulting

  p. 41: © 2016 National Public Radio, Inc. NPR news report titled “Designing

  New Products With Empathy: 50 Stress Cases To Consider” by Libby

  Bawcombe as originally published on https://npr.design/ on August 16, 2016,

  and is used with the permission of NPR. Any unauthorized duplication is

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  The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

  Names: Wachter-Boettcher, Sara, author.

  Title: Technically wrong : sexist apps, biased algorithms, and other threats of toxic tech / Sara Wachter-Boettcher.

  Description: First edition. | New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, independent publishers since 1923, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017031829 | ISBN 9780393634631 (hardcover)

  Subjects: LCSH: System failures (Engineering) | Business failures. |

  Technology—Social aspects. | New products—Moral and ethical aspects.

  Classification: LCC TA169.5 .W33 2017 | DDC 303.48/34—dc23

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