Data Science Gets Political
November 20, 2018
With the near ubiquitous use of big data science in every industry short of rock hunting, it was inevitable that there would be blowback. Recently, many tech companies began to feel some political heat due to their involvement with immigration agencies. We learned more from a recent Mercury News story, “Bay Area Cities May Boycott Tech Giants Contracting With ICE.”
According to the story:
“The policy comes as the local immigration debate shifts toward several prominent tech companies — including Palo Alto’s Palantir Technologies, Vigilant Solutions in Livermore and Amazon, which have been criticized for contracting with federal immigration agencies. Last week, advocates descended on Salesforce’s annual conference in San Francisco with an 14-foot-tall cage symbolizing ICE detention to protest the company’s contract with Customs and Border Protection.”
If this sounds a little farfetched or even unlikely, pay close attention to similar actions in Europe. There, when people pushed back against the intersection of politics and big data, it began to impact finances. And when pocketbooks begin to suffer, you can guarantee companies take notice. We don’t yet know if the same will happen in America, but we have a hunch this issue won’t vanish quietly.
Patrick Roland, November 20, 2018
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