Data Collection and Organizing: A Thread of Reflective Questions.

The ability to collect + consolidate data allows organizers to make accurate claims, show trends, and build relationships. It can also cause problems for the people who end up in our datasets. 1/

Just because people consent to having information used for one purpose, does not mean they consent for it to be used for another purpose. Part of collecting data means being responsible for it afterwards. 2/

Who can access the data you collect? Where is it stored (publicly viewable excel spreadsheet, somewhere more secure)? What could someone w/ different intentions use this data for? Can you guarantee protection for this data? If not, does it still make sense to collect it? 3/

Are there ways your data can be linked to the person who created it? Can people who end up in your dataset choose to remove themselves later? Is everyone you include aware of being included and aware of changes in access to that data? 4/

If you are collecting data on a group of people impacted by an issue that you are not, are you collaborating w/ people who are directly impacted about particular protections that they need + seeking their advice about which data is important to collect + which is unnecessary? 5/

Addresses, phone numbers, subscriptions, location data, willingness to support a cause of some kind, demographic information, all of it is data. If you have it in a spreadsheet, you are managing a database, whether it is secure or not. 6/

Data that feels innocuous is rarely. It can be used to jeopardize parole eligibility, access to housing, child custody, to target people for additional surveillance. If you are collecting data on marginalized people, you are surveilling them. Please be mindful of this. 7/