Our data-intensive world is here to stay, but does that come at the cost of our humanity in terms of autonomy, community, dignity, and equality?

In We, the Data, Wendy H. Wong argues that we cannot allow that to happen. Exploring the pervasiveness of data collection and tracking, Wong reminds us that we are all stakeholders in this digital world, who are currently being left out of the most pressing conversations around technology, ethics, and policy. This book clarifies the nature of datafication and calls for an extension of human rights to recognize how data complicate what it means to safeguard and encourage human potential.

As we go about our lives, we are co-creating data through what we do. We must embrace that these data are a part of who we are, Wong explains, even as current policies do not yet reflect the extent to which human experiences have changed. This means we are more than mere “subjects” or “sources” of data “by-products” that can be harvested and used by technology companies and governments. By exploring data rights, facial recognition technology, our posthumous rights, and our need for a right to data literacy, Wong has crafted a compelling case for engaging as stakeholders to hold data collectors accountable. Just as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights laid the global groundwork for human rights, We, the Data gives us a foundation upon which we claim human rights in the age of data.

PRAISE for We, the Data

❝Wendy Wong has written a thoroughly engaging and thought-provoking book that should be essential reading for anyone interested in the intersection of digital technologies and human rights.❞

– Ron Deibert, Professor of Political Science; Director, The Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto

❝In accessible and inspired prose, Wong makes a powerful case for putting human rights at the center of our public conversations about datafication, big data, and AI.❞

–Catherine D'Ignazio, Associate Professor and Director of the Data + Feminism Lab, MIT; Co-author of Data Feminism

❝Absolutely fascinating.❞

–IEEE Spectrum

❝A timely and engaging exploration.... We, the Data presents a refreshing and nuanced view of data.... [Wong's] proposal is a welcome invitation for each of us to reclaim our agency and become full participants in conversations and decisions about how to apply human rights and human values to our data reality.❞

–Science

❝Very rich and incredibly readable.❞

–New Books in Political Science

❝We, the Data offers understandable, eye-opening explanations of the ways data emerge, inform, and endure, and re-conceptualizes the relationship between technology, society, and governance. … This book serves as a necessary first step toward data literacy and advocacy in our datafied future.❞

- Journal of Democracy: Our Favorite Books of 2023

Internal Affairs shows how the organizational structures of human rights NGOs and their campaigns determine their influence on policy. Drawing on data from seven major international organizations—the International Committee of the Red Cross, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Médecins sans Frontières, Oxfam International, Anti-Slavery International, and the International League of Human Rights—Wendy H. Wong demonstrates that NGOs that choose to centralize agenda-setting and decentralize the implementation of that agenda are more successful in gaining traction in international politics.

Challenging the conventional wisdom that the most successful NGOs are those that find the "right" cause or have the most resources, Wong shows that how NGOs make and implement decisions is critical to their effectiveness in influencing international norms about human rights. Building on the insights of network theory and organizational sociology, Wong traces how power works within NGOs and affects their external authority. The internal coherence of an organization, as reflected in its public statements and actions, goes a long way to assure its influence over the often tumultuous elements of the international human rights landscape.