We are a five-person team concerned about the ways our communities’ digital information is collected, stored, and shared by government and corporations. Based in marginalized neighborhoods in Charlotte, North Carolina, Detroit, Michigan, and Los Angeles, California, we look at digital data collection and our human rights, work with local communities, community orginizations, and social support networks, and show how different data systems impact re-entry, fair housing, public assistance, and community development.

This work is made possible in part by a grant from Digital Trust Foundation.

Latest blog posts

  • Tracked and Targeted: A Word About Our Participatory Methodology

    Consistent with our past research, the study presented in Tracked and Targeted: Navigating Worker Surveillance at Amazon is a participatory action research study. This means we focus deeply on individuals’ and groups’ lived experiences as the basis from which we can know and understand the world. This type of research design deeply emphasizes reciprocity and…

  • Surveillance, Policing and Punishment in Low-Wage Work at Amazon

    Our Data Bodies’ interim findings on surveillance of low-wage workers at Amazon are now published! Tracked and Targeted: Navigating Worker Surveillance at Amazon features insights and stories based on an initial analysis of 21 interviews we conducted with current and former workers.  Our qualitative, participatory studyDetails on our participatory methodology can be found here: https://odbproject.org/2023/11/15/odb-at-work-methodology/.…

  • Our Data Bodies and Open Secrets went to RightsCon 2023!

    Earlier this year, Our Data Bodies attended the RightsCon Conference that took place in San José, Costa Rica. It was a complicated affair that came with great connections, but incredible disappointment in the conference’s handling of the realities of racism, colorism, imperial borders, and government negotiations. Overall, it was a complicated, connective time.  Our Data…

  • Our Data Bodies and Open Secrets hosted a knowledge sharing workshop !

    This past month, Our Data Bodies co-hosted a Technology, Discrimination, and Exclusion workshop with Cape Town-based civil society organization, Open Secrets. The workshop focused on knowledge generation around specific issues of data collection, collusion between private and government sectors, and ideas of ethical data usage in South Africa. The workshop took place at Community House in…