Schakowsky Says Privacy Debate Should Include Racial Discrimination Issues
Racial discrimination concerns “absolutely” need to be addressed in the data privacy debate, House Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chair Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., told reporters after a hearing Wednesday. The tech industry should ensure that facial recognition and other technologies aren’t discriminating against minorities, she said.
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Though discussion about discrimination and the tech workforce’s lack of diversity was wide-ranging during a “good hearing,” Schakowsky conceded nothing was “directly connected” to a particular action Congress can take. Ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., agreed it’s important to encourage opportunities for all races, genders and the disabled. The tech industry needs to recruit, retain and promote a diverse set of workers into high positions, Rodgers said. Analysis is needed of whether these technologies are responsible for breaking civil rights laws, Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., told us.
House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., cited specific examples of bias like job ads favoring men over women and websites not properly accessible for the disabled. Kelly said during the hearing that she constantly hears Chicago startups say they struggle to recruit a diverse set of tech workers.
Former Facebook and Twitter manager Mark Luckie discussed how white and Asian men dominate the tech industry. Part of the problem is that minorities are underrepresented in the academic fields that feed into the industry, Brookings Institution Fellow Nicol Turner Lee said. African-Americans are 11.9 percent of all workers in the tech sector but only 7.9 percent in the computer and math fields, she said. She also cited privacy concerns about people being denied credit because of their browsing history.
Schakowsky focused her opening questions on the lack of gender diversity in the tech sector. About 31 percent of Facebook and Apple employees are women, she said. Luckie suggested tech companies audit for gaps in diversity recruitment and retainment. He criticized Facebook staff more concerned with “putting out fires” before they reach the public eye.
A lack of diversity affects data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, said Rutgers Law School co-Dean David Lopez. Asian Americans Advancing Justice Vice President-Policy and Programs Jiny Kim argued there's an economic rationale for recruiting a more diverse workforce, saying more diverse companies perform better than those that employ homogenous staffs.
Policymakers and competition enforcers should “certainly be vigilant against anticompetitive conduct,” Information Technology and Innovation Foundation President Rob Atkinson said Monday. “But they should also ensure they examine legitimate competition concerns, not perceived dominance.” Tuesday (see 1903050070), Senate Judiciary Committee lawmakers weighed whether there's a monopoly problem in the U.S. Lawmakers debated whether privacy issues should be addressed using antitrust tools.