title: We Are Data: Algorithms and the Making of Our Digital Selves
author: John Cheney-Lippold
description: <em>We Are Data</em>spells out the implications of being made of data in the digital age: our new algorithmic identity. John Cheney-Lippold shows how algorithmic logics that undergird the architecture, regulation, monetization, and uses of the Internet have changed the nature of human experience and identity. Through witty and accessible examples, he eloquently lays out the social and political consequences of transcoding lived identity into measurable types in our new world. Clearly written, carefully researched, timely and intelligent,<em>We Are Data</em>is a compelling and much-needed book.-Alexandra Juhasz,Chair, Film Department, Brooklyn College<br /><br />This book sparkles with brilliant insights. It offers us tools and a vocabulary through which we can think about the layers of identities that our data-conjured ghosts inhabit. I dont think I fully grasped the complexity of what these clouds of commercial data did with us and to us until I read <em>We Are Data</em>.-Siva Vaidhyanathan,author of <i>The Googlization of Everythingand Why We Should Worry</i><br /><br />The text moves beyond overdone topics of online privacy to look at how the lack of privacy of our data impacts identities It is the most appropriate for social science researchers and students.-<i>Choice</i><br /><br />"A heady and rewarding explanation of our lives in the data age. [Cheney-Lippold's] discussion of privacy...will fascinate many. Essential reading for anyone who cares about the internet's extraordinary impact on each of us and on our society."-<i>Starred Kirkus Reviews</i><br /><br /><em>We Are Data</em>is a gem!... This finely crafted book should help us to take a giant collective leap forward."-<i>International Journal of Communication</i><br /><br />"<em>We Are Data</em> shows us just how powerful data can be and how that data affects who we are and who we can be. Cheney-Lippold addresses how data is (and always has been) a part of our lives through the discussionof categorization, control, subjectivity, and privacy."-<i>Technical Communication</i><br /><br />John Cheney-Lippolds deft examination of measurable typesthe categories by which we are known and assessed, based on our datasheds light on contemporary societys encounter with information systems to scrutiny, and with those eager to identify us for their own ends.<em>We Are Data</em> goes beyond naming possible harms. It helps us think differently about what it means to be seen by marketers, algorithms, or the NSA as members of shifting categoriesidentifications that structure us and our encounter with the world, but that we have little power to shape.-Tarleton Gillespie,author of <i>Wired Shut: Copyright and the Shape of Digital Culture</i><br /><br />"If knowledge is indeed the means by which we can begin to challenge the digital status quo, then Cheney-Lippold has done much to forearm us by so capably elucidating the problem."-<i>LSE Review of Books</i><br /><br /><em>We Are Data</em> is an inspiring and thought-provoking book to read, especially for those interested in the social, political, and cultural aspects of data. It draws on a wide range of well-known literature in the field of Internet and algorithm studies and further engages deeply with the philosophical aspects of the presented themes.-<i>Mobile Media and Communication</i>
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  Hello  
  World
  
  
  Being Human  
  in the Age of Algorithms
  
  
  HANNAH FRY
  
  
  ![img](images/logo.jpg)
  
  
  W. W. NORTON & COMPANY
  
  
  _Independent Publishers Since 1923_
  
  
  NEW YORK • LONDON
  
  
  For Marie Fry.
  
  
  Thank you for never taking no for an answer.
  
  
  Contents
  
  
  [_A note on the title_](note.xhtml#not)
  
  
  [Introduction](introduction.xhtml#int)
  
  
  [**Power**](ch1.xhtml#ch1)
  
  
  [**Data**](ch2.xhtml#ch2)
  
  
  [**Justice**](ch3.xhtml#ch3)
  
  
  [**Medicine**](ch4.xhtml#ch4)
  
  
  [**Cars**](ch5.xhtml#ch5)
  
  
  [**Crime**](ch6.xhtml#ch6)
  
  
  [**Art**](ch7.xhtml#ch7)
  
  
  [Conclusion](conclusion.xhtml#con)
  
  
  [_Acknowledgements_](acknowledgements.xhtml#ack)
  
  
  [_Photograph Credits_](credits.xhtml#cre)
  
  
  [_Notes_](foot.xhtml#fot)
  
  
  [_Index_](index.xhtml#ind)
  
  
  [A note on the title](toc.xhtml#inot)
  
  
  WHEN I WAS 7 YEARS old, my dad brought a gift home for me and my sisters. It
  was a ZX Spectrum, a little 8-bit computer – the first time we’d ever had one
  of our own. It was probably already five years out of dat