All Tech Is Human Library Podcast Series #12 | Amira Dhalla
In the twelfth conversation of a sixteen-part All Tech is Human Library Podcast interview series, Director of Impact Partnerships at Consumer Reports Amira Dhalla joins David Ryan Polgar for a conversation about how a diverse, interdisciplinary, and multi-stakeholder approach is essential to create a more responsible tech future. Dhalla details ways integrating more voices into the tech space can produce more equitable outcomes. Check out the full podcast series here.
About Amira Dhalla
As the Director of Impact Partnerships at Consumer Reports, Amira Dhalla works with organizations on projects to improve the safety, security, and privacy of consumer products and tools, while also shining a spotlight on marketplace issues including discriminatory technologies, deceptive design, digital access and inclusion.
Amira brings more than a decade of technology, consumer rights, and digital advocacy experience to Consumer Reports. Previously, at Mozilla Foundation, she developed digital education programs in more than 100 countries, ran privacy and security advocacy-focused campaigns, and collaborated with global institutions on programs to increase digital rights and privacy programs worldwide. Alongside her work at Consumer Reports, she continues to work with educators and activists to design participatory curriculum and resources to make emerging technology more inclusive, open, and safe.
Amira holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Columbia University, where she focused on Technology and Human Rights. In her hometown of Toronto, she earned a bachelor’s degree in Honors Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University.
Key Takeaways
Products and services are not built with all communities in mind. When building something, we should consider which communities it’ll affect and at what cost.
When thinking about career steps, it’s important to listen and learn from our communities for which we serve as a support mechanism.
A better tech future looks like holding the right parties accountable and leveraging our collective power to ensure actions taken are aligned with our interests.
Quotes
“And I always wanna encourage others when you're showing up in new spaces, we don't know how to build all the things we're trying to build. We don't know who we're building them for and how they're gonna impact the people. And I really think more people in this space, if we show up to listen and learn, [it will] really help us be able to develop something that is better for people. And I would say I attribute that a lot to just how I showed up most of my life, especially when things were changing and new. And my mom is big on the communication front of ‘You have to talk as much as you listen.’ And how can we be better listeners to the people we're around? Because that's one of the highest forms of communication in which you truly understand how you can have both an impact, but also support mechanisms for your community.” 6:22 - 7:07
“I feel like there are no quick fixes in technology, especially, an equivalent to there is nothing for free in technology. Everything comes at a cost and a price, and it's to who is the question I like to ask. And so, we can't just build things to immediately solve everyone's problems. More often than not, we're solving someone's problems and we're leaving someone else behind. And so I feel like that's really worth digging into, like how do we think about these in long-term sustainable ways?” 8:31 - 8:58
“There is a benefit to one community where there's a loss for another. And one of the most pivotal things we talk about right now is surveillance. And surveillance is one of those places where people get to feel safer in their homes if they have a video doorbell, but that video doorbell is capturing your entire neighborhood, so it's giving you…an advantage, whereas it's actually being unsafe for your entire community…And if you've been on any sort of neighborhood app, you're seeing more and more of these videos of [nonconsensual] documentation taken from your neighborhood. And so we're talking about one person feeling security versus an entire community feeling [insecure].” 10:14 - 11:07
“And then you have the side of someone like myself who works on the, like ‘Okay, so we have the data, we have the research, what are we gonna do about it?’ And I actually love that part of Consumer Reports and I think that's the part many people don't know when it comes to [our work]. Many people are familiar with, like, buying the magazine…and I'm like, that's great. And that's ground zero for us. That's our legacy. But the side that I work on is really like, what are we gonna do next? Cuz it's not enough to just find out scary things like, [the] video doorbell records 20 feet away. It's like, what am I gonna do about it? Am I gonna pressure lawmakers and say, ‘Hey, that's not okay cuz that's [nonconsensual] audio recording of someone's neighbor.’ What are we gonna do? So there is a whole policy and advocacy part [where] we work very closely with partners and organizations to advocate against a lot of these issues that really directly face consumers. And then, there's a whole other swat of work and it's really like collaboration amongst organizations and people to protect people in certain ways, even when they don't realize the impact these things have around them.” 14:47 - 15:51
“Well, the two things I brought up in the report is one, focus on accountability. I think for me it is we can hold these systems accountable, but we know who's accountable. I think right now we are all pointing fingers in different ways. We're like, I'm accountable to protecting my data and I might not know how to do that. I think the government's accountable, the states [are] accountable, companies are accountable. We're kind of, we want accountability, but we don't actually know how to drive that and where that comes from. So I think we learn who we're gonna point to in terms of accountability and how we get there. And I think a responsible tech future is dependent on us figuring that out. And then the other part is like power to the people. Like the people are the voice, they are the heart and soul of all these movements. And I have so much faith in the people. There's no coincidence that the people changed ID.me. There's no coincidence that so many of the things we're seeing right now, people have invested time and effort into moving these movements forward, and I believe they can have so much power when they are together. And so I think the responsible tech future can look like many different things, but the two things that I really feel strongly says, understanding how to hold, like who's accountable and holding accountability, and then us leveraging our own power in that space to actually bring the actions and the future we want.” 17:02 - 18:18
Learn More About Amira Dhalla
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Credits:
David Ryan Polgar - Moderator
Amira Dhalla - Interviewee
Unfinished Live - Producers
