With recidivism algorithms, for example, I worry about racist outcomes. With personality tests [for hiring], I worry about filtering out people with mental health problems from jobs. And with a teacher value-added model algorithm [used in New York City to score teachers], I worry literally that it's not meaningful. That it's almost a random number generator.

I think big data companies only like good news. So I think they're just hoping that they don't get sued, essentially.

I don't think anybody's ever notified that they were sentenced to an extra two years because their recidivism score had been high, or notified that this beat cop happened to be in their neighborhood checking people's pockets for pot because of a predictive policing algorithm. That's just not how it works.

My fantasy is that there is a new regulatory body that is in charge of algorithmic auditing.

There might never be that moment when everyone says, "Oh my God, big data is awful."

I would argue that one of the major problems with our blind trust in algorithms is that we can propagate discriminatory patterns without acknowledging any kind of intent.

People are starting to be very skeptical of the Facebook algorithm and all kinds of data surveillance.