Data Science: What the Facebook Controversy is Really About - Sara M. Watson - The Atlantic

Final paragraphs of a timely social media + data science reality check

"We need to be more critical of the production of data science, especially in commercial settings. The firms that use our data have asymmetric power over us. We do them a favor unquestioningly accepting their claims to the prestige, expertise, and authority of science as well.

Ultimately, society’s greatest concerns with science and technology are ethical: Do we accept or reject the means by which knowledge is produced and the ends to which it is applied? It’s a question we ask of nuclear physics, genetic modification—and one we should ask of data science."

Data Science: What the Facebook Controversy is Really About - Sara M. Watson - The Atlantic