Decide what we do next – come to our January planning meeting!
The DTBC newsletter exists to keep our community informed of our work and about data and technology news that’s especially relevant to Black & Back Heritage communities. You can find out more about who we are and what we do here.
What have we been up to?
We completed our EdTech report & launched “Let’s Do It Together’ advocacy toolkit!
In June, we launched the report (on our new website!!) for our Birmingham-focused community research project focused on the Educational technology (EdTech) applications used in schools. Alongside the report, we produced:
a short animation video to explain the key concerns about EdTech
Posters which summarise the key data and human rights that for data about us within education settings
Template letters that can be sent to schools, companies, local government to allow us to scrutinise and understand how our children’s data is being used
We hope these tools will help parents/ carers, community organisers advocate on behalf of their children and protect their data.
This work was created and completed by many, many people who went above and beyond to journey with us to draw light on how EdTech impacts Black/Black heritage children. A full list of this amazing collective is acknowledged in our report.
Thinking about what we do next and how we pay for it
There’s more work to be done to raise awareness of the implications for EdTech use and the personal data that is collected about our children, families and educators. We have some ideas for further projects to develop, but importantly are keen to know what you think our focus should be and how you can get involved.
If you are a DTBC member or were part of the project delivery team, come join us to discuss and broadly scope our priorities for 2026 on:
Wednesday 7th of January 2026 at 6.30-7.30pm OR
Saturday, 10th of January 2026 at 3-4pm
Invites for these sessions will be sent directly to members, but if you want to become a member 👇🏿
Growing our membership
We often joke that DTBC is run by some very tired Black women that squeeze the work in around busy lives and full-time jobs. This was never the plan!
DTBC was always envisioned as a Black/Black heritage member-run organisation. We think that’s the best way to sustain a community-led approach to scrutinising the uses of data and tech in society, and to advocate for change where needed. That’s how we ran and delivered the Birmingham EdTech project. Learn about and apply for DTBC membership here- It’s FREE!! Please consider joining us!!
Working with others to push for the protection of our data rights
Legislation matters (and enforcement) and tech billionaires know it. That’s why they lobbied President Trump and the US congress to block – through federal legislation – individual states’ ability to pass AI legislation. Their first efforts failed, so they pivoted – Trump has now passed an Executive Order to force their will through.
They haven’t stopped there. They have also been lobbying EU MEPs and applying political pressure through President Trump to force changes to the EU’s AI Act. This matters, if EU legislation falls, the UK’s will too.
Successive UK governments have already sought to reduce our data protection rights and enforcement of the rights we still have is very weak. This latter point is why we joined with other civil society organisations to lobby the Commons science, innovation and technology committee to look into the poor enforcement record of the UK regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office, and how this is putting the public at risk.
How data and data-centric technologies are showing up in our world
Below are some stories and calls to action which have made us stop and think. These and other news and research articles and blog posts can all be found on our curated Raindrop page. Please tell us about stories that you’ve found interesting!
🧑🏿🎓Education
Teachers, parents and students in South Korea raised serious concerns and they managed to roll back the government’s rollout of AI-powered textbooks. They noticed that the “books had factual inaccuracies, posed data privacy risks, increased screen time for children, and resulted in a heavier workload for teachers and students.” The government spent $850 million of taxpayers’ money on the programme. Our takeaway: it’s important for school communities to be critical assessors of efforts to roll out any data-centric technology in our schools and use our children’s data. Get knowledgeable and stay organised.
A Guardian article “Big tech has transformed the classroom – and parents are right to be worried” shared similar concerns we found through our community research work. The largely unchallenged rise of EdTech use, the profiteering from private companies, children’s exposure to advertising, the lack of evidence that increasing EdTech use leads to increased outcomes, and the lack of ‘enforceable regulations’ for EdTech companies. If you share these concerns and want to get involved in making your voice heard– do join us in January
👨🏿💻Employment & Enterprise
There’s been a lot of talk of AI unleashing human capital but many artists argue that their experience of AI’s impact on their industry is an exploitative one. Recently, the Black country western artist Blanco Brown’s sound was reproduced by AI and credited to a fictional white artist producing a hit which was number 1 in the Billboard charts. The Independent article quotes Blanco recalling a friend alerting him to this theft “Man, somebody done typed your name in the AI and made a white version of you. They just used the Blanco, not the Brown.”
Read more about the controversy about AI art and how it impinges on the livelihoods of human artists here. Here’s an excerpt from the article that draws a line between AI and the long tradition of commercially exploiting artists, especially Black artists in America:
“ Culture writer Shamira Ibrahim argued that “AI has been hyped as a novel phenomenon, but the core processes behind the generative model with respect to music are fairly entrenched in American music history: the idea that Black musical creation is unartistic and easily reproducible for profit while removing Black architects of the sound.””
What are your thoughts on this? Is there a way for artists to enjoy a more equitable compensation or do you think this is just the price of progress? Has your livelihood been affected by AI?
🦸🏿♀️Crime & justice
Remember the Metropolitan Police’s predictive tool called The Gang Matrix? Do you remember all the work that civil liberties organisations put into fighting it only for it to get shut down but then re-emerge in a new form? Well, they’re not the only ones incorporating predictive policing into their practice. Avon and Somerset police have been using the Qlik Offender Management App. Civil liberty group, Amnesty, has accused the police force of “supercharging” racism through the use of this tool.
Copwatch has launched a legal challenge to hold Avon and Somerset Police to account for the unlawful use of the Offender Management App. They are being represented by the outstanding Saunders Law LLP and Matrix Chambers who intend to challenge Avon and Somerset Police in the High Court via Judicial Review if necessary.
Do you know if the police force in your area is using similar tools? If this is an area of interest and you’re thinking of running a local project, we’d love to hear more. Alternatively, if you’re already a member, why not raise this in the DTBC Signal group? Let’s discuss!
🧘🏿♂️Health
Back in 2024, Noland Arbaugh who had been paralysed in an accident eight years prior, agreed to have a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) chip implanted in his brain. The manufacturer of the chip was an Elon Musk owned company, Neuralink. The implantation has since run into problems. But even if it hadn’t there are a number of legal and ethical issues which remain unresolved. For example, what kind of privacy can users of this technology expect? What rights do they have?
As Anil Seth, Professor of Neuroscience at University of Sussex remarked to the BBC, "So if we are exporting our brain activity [...] then we are kind of allowing access to not just what we do but potentially what we think, what we believe and what we feel… Once you've got access to stuff inside your head, there really is no other barrier to personal privacy left."
Also, what happens when a private company behind one of these chips goes out of business or discontinues the “service” or product?
Given all you know about how Tech companies operate, would you agree to having a neurological implant inserted in your brain? If so, what would you want to know beforehand? What reassurances would you seek?
👨🏿🌾Environment
The latest version of data centres known as hyperscale data centres are vast physical buildings used to store computer and networking equipment that tech organisations tell us is needed for increased AI development and adoption. In recent times it has been all over the news, all over the world for negative impacts on our health e.g. in Southern Memphis where Elon Musk’s xAI data centre is exacerbating respiratory problems of local residents, our finances e.g. in Virginia where people’s energy bills are spiking and links to environmental harms through the large amounts of water and electricity which are required.
Tech companies are pushing for an unprecedented number of hyperscale data centres to be built and they’re lobbying governments to make this happen. In the UK, our government has pledged to invest billions of taxpayers’ money into subsidising the AI private sector, share our data with them and override local planning decisions to force through data centres even if residents don’t want them. Legal Advocacy group, Foxglove has been sounding the alarm about how the government’s approach puts the UK at risk of severe water shortage in the coming years. This is coming at a time when ordinary people are seeing their water bills rise by as much as 35% and debt-ridden private water companies like Thames Water are appealing to the high court for the right to charge as much as 53% more.
Want to see if there’s a data centre being planned for a location near you? Have a look at the Global Action Plan Data Centre map. It’s not an exhaustive list but it’s a good starting place.
🤳🏿 What are we reading/watching/listening to?
We’ve been listening to a few of podcasts; here are some of our favourite episodes:
If you can spare 15 minutes, watch this important and engaging talk by Dr Tiera Tanksley who discusses the harms that algorithmic racism within school-based technologies have for Black students and ideas for how to support children and young people to challenge them.
Tech Won’t Save Us: Europe is Gutting Its Tech Regulations
Tech Grumps: Your illegal, racially motivated stops will go more smoothly
We’ve also been learning more about the tech billionaire reality distortion field i.e. tech billionaires and buying up media and trying to control our perception of reality:
🙌🏿 What’s bringing us joy this month?
New members! Please make us even happier by becoming a member today.
It’s nearly Christmas!! We hope you will have a joyful break!
Get in touch!
We hope you enjoyed our newsletter. If you have thoughts, news to share with us, or want to get involved in any way, do get in touch: admin@dtbc.org.uk
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