Closed code blocks user communities from governing algorithms and data collection

Evidence

While the closed nature of code is often taken for granted as a necessary means of protecting digital companies’ intellectual property, important arguments have been made regarding the political importance and economic viability of protecting users’ rights to study and modify all software code that they encounter. The Free Software Foundation, for example, has been advocating for these rights and supporting software projects that abide by these principles since the 1980s (“What Is Free Software?”, n.d). — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 525

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Free digital tools are false generosity masking data exploitation — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 536; Distributed commercial data collection is structurally opaque and hard to contest — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 389; Algorithmic trading interfaces can render harmful working conditions invisible to users. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 281 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Distributed commercial data collection is structurally opaque and hard to contest #corroborates (0.88) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 389
• User consent does not extend to background data aggregation through app APIs #expands (0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 517
• User interfaces hide the material code that structures digital capitalism. #expands (0.82) — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 74
• Algorithmic trading interfaces can render harmful working conditions invisible to users. #expands (0.80) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 281
• Privately controlled data extraction produces social classifications that entrench inequality #expands (0.78) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 443