"F*** the Algorithm", It’s Time to Get Our Agency Back - Part II
Reclaiming agency in a world shaped by algorithms starts with understanding the choices built into our technology.
17 min read
2020–2021 / Co-Chair
Trust is part of how a public service works.
Co-chaired the council advising on inclusion, adoption, privacy and the operation of Canada’s exposure-notification service.
I co-chaired Canada’s COVID Alert Advisory Council with Carole Piovesan. The council brought together different perspectives on a difficult public-service question: how a privacy-preserving digital tool could be useful, accessible and trusted during a public-health emergency.
The council’s three reports addressed adoption and retention; COVID Alert as a government service; and the tool’s public-health contribution and limitations. Our work considered language and access barriers, outreach, the process for issuing notification keys, operational improvements and privacy-preserving measurement.
The council held its nineteenth and final meeting on 29 July 2021. The final public report includes later evaluation data and acknowledges that the app did not reach its full potential. That record matters: responsible adoption includes understanding what worked, what did not, and what future services should learn.
Publications & public record
Related writing
Where the thinking developed.
Designing for the Humans in the Loop - Part III
How AI design can preserve the judgment and agency of people in the decision or process loop. The final essay in a three-part series.
13 min read