Manipulation of data has long been exploited for the achievement of political and financial ends — gerrymandering and malapportionment of the electorate are supreme examples of this — but never before has a gerrymandering of an individual's personal values and beliefs been so easily accomplishable. With already well over half of the entire world's population able to regularly access the internet, and subject to such persuasive technologies, and with more and more of our life already coming down to the ways the algorithms which govern these systems involve us in their processes to encourage and manipulate engagement, there is perhaps no other area in today's world with so much at stake.

Taking seriously the current state of affairs around data harvesting and use, the technologies which are developing and how great a leverage and influence over the future and the present the control of these domains is, the World Ethical Data Foundation explores these and other important issues, however difficult they may threaten to become.