Bronson

While we don’t have apps and devices to specifically monitor and log our biases, emotions, and subconscious, social media and other apps can monitor our habits, location and other aspects of our lives.

So many times, we’ll be talking about a certain products and within the same day, google or Facebook seem to know exactly what to advertise to us, either through Facebook, YouTube, Instagram or even just a google search engine. Our “suggested” tabs fill up with products we may have mentioned one or two times in passing. Maybe you spoke to your brother about bulking up? Whey protein, exercise bands, and weight sets seem to be in you “recommended products”, fitness pages, and models are in your explore tab on IG, and Goodlife and LA fitness banners are now littered across your Facebook page… and of course we all click. We want to check out that “goal physique”. We’re curious, how much is that protein powder? What are the benefits? If you’ve liked, shared or saved any of these posts, you’re now telling the algorithm I’M INTERESTED! I WANT THAT! So now even if you were not thinking about this too heavily, it’ll be constantly marketed towards you.

Facebook also has the ability to track other websites you’re visiting even when you’re not using the app/website. Because Facebook owns Instagram and WhatsApp, it’s not crazy to think that all of these apps are constantly monitoring the websites you’re visiting, conversations you’re having, and/or places that you’ve been. Google tracks you through services like google maps, weather updates, and browser searches, and can get an idea of places/ businesses you like to visit/frequent, topics and products you’re “googling”, videos of interest (YouTube) etc.

Wearable tech such as fitbits and smart watches make it easier to track your heartbeat, temperature and other vital signs. Front facing cameras on most up-to-date smart phones can distinguish distinct human faces from one another. Fingerprint sensors can detect and store fingerprints, however currently there are no apps to translate this data into bias or emotional data.

While the algorithms used in these websites and apps track your “buying bias”, and search history, it’s hard for these algorithms to determine your bias towards race, age, gender, sexual orientation etc., and your emotions and subconscious. There are tests and quizzes to test for bias and general personality types, however there is no current app or technology to register these qualities in real time.

IBM has released a program ( OpenScale) to monitor their Ai and machine learning for bias against protected attributes such as sex, ethnicity, age, religion, marital status etc. These bias monitors help to speed up configuration and ensure that AI models are being checked for fairness against sensitive attributes.