How is age connected to the range of technological harms experienced in Canada, and what types of oversight or redress are needed to prevent these harms?
We argue that considering data harms through an intersectional lens that includes age pushes us to rethink assumptions about technology and its uses, how harms are being experienced and challenged, what transparency and accountability should look like in datafied societies and how we might move collectively toward better futures with technologies that value our interdependence and well-being. Despite recognizing that younger and older adults may encounter compounded exclusions in a digital society, discussions of age and aging are frequently omitted from intersectional analyses of AI and discussions concerning data harms (Stypinska 2023). Prioritizing the experiences of younger and older adults is needed to gain a fuller picture of the scope and impact of this issue (Chu et al. 2023). Our project involves research with younger and older adults to gain a better appreciation of how data harms are being experienced by these two groups and what resources they think are needed to ensure better protections.
Goals:
The aim of the Preventing Data Harms in Canada project is to work with younger and older adults, often the two groups most stereotyped in connection with digital technology use, to expand how we understand data harms and how we could better work together to prevent them. We plan to hold 4 workshops with younger and older adults to: a) better understand how harm is being experienced and what prevention efforts are neededb) to co-develop critical AI literacy tools to empower and mobilize knowledge about how harms are being experienced and the efforts Canadians think are needed to prevent them, c) to improve AI oversight and accountability and strengthen privacy and rights-based protections of Canadians by enhancing policy makers understanding of the range and complexity of the harms being experienced by Canadians because of uses of AI.
Objectives:
- To produce work that documents and enhances understanding of data harms, particularly how these harms are being experienced through the lens of age and other intersectional factors.
- Use workshops to identify what supports and preventive interventions are needed.
- Work with workshop participants to co-produce empowering and informative data literacy tools and policy recommendations.
- Enhance public and policymaking efforts to prevent harm through empirically grounded findings about how data harms are being experienced across the life course and in the Canadian context.
Outputs:
The research will lead to three outputs: 1) data literacy tools (podcast, blog or art) that can be posted on the AiD website and shared. All materials will have a creative commons license, 2) a research report that synthesizes research findings and recommendations, and 3) an article to be published in the Canadian Journal of Communication.
