There is first the problem, already noted, that decision makers may not understand their data sources. The increasing use of data streams with insufficient contextualization in government decision-making through so-called dashboards has provoked concern in the United Kingdom. The problem is deepened by the distinctive way that data generates knowledge through Machine Learning. Data processing generates proxies—regular correlations that stand in for other variables of social knowledge—out of which larger models of the world to be governed are built. The whole point of proxies is to black-box a more complex social domain while facilitating intervention. When an insurer assumes that driving after midnight equates to choosing to take more risk even if a person’s working conditions require it or when algorithms treat geographical areas as proxies for levels of crime risk, complexities on the ground become unreadable.

Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, loc. 450