Free software, remedy the opacity of algorithms – The Gazette (subscription)

In a text published in The Gazette January 12 (“ Uber and the necessary social control algorithms ” ), the researcher Yves Gingras raised the very pertinent question of the opacity of the algorithms used by digital services to which we are becoming accustomed in our society (eg Uber). The subject was discussed again at the radio show Large Medium January 14. This issue concerns us as citizens and activists of the free software.

The philosophy of free software, we believe, casts a critical light on the issues of digital and, hopefully, will help the Quebec public to find it a little better.

M. Gingras invites us to exercise a “ social control ” on the decision algorithms , real “ Black Box ” one does not know. We agree. Society needs “ Programs [Computer] that people can read, fix, adapt, improve “ instead of ” Black Box “ we provide the key industry players, we said Richard Stallman, founder of the movement for free software, in a 1994 essay.

While we want to exercise adequate social control algorithms, we must consider not only the laws, regulations and institutions but also the source code of software with which algorithms are implemented. Unfortunately, the software source code is usually hidden from view by a user abuse of copyright of the developers, typically companies that own them. Free software does exactly the opposite, exploiting copyright to protect the freedoms of users against potential abuse of the developers.

Scenarios

Hypothetically, one can very well imagine the user Uber community (online service) evolving independently of the undertaking Uber, its business model, its practices, its choice algorithms. What would the Uber community (users, carriers, developers and technical operators) if the online service had no owner, it was the common thing of all? Many scenarios are possible. Among these scenarios, which are more ethical, legal and very beneficial for both service users and society in general. It is the lack of freedom that prevents the materialisation of the best scenarios we could design.

The opacity of software, it is easy to realize, caused, causes and will continue to lead to abuses of all kinds. Since the Snowden case, it is the abuse relating to the right to privacy (mass surveillance) and the right to freedom of expression (censorship) that attract the most public attention. However, it should be understood that the list of possible abuse by a guarded secret software is very long. She will go on lying in the coming years, at a time when “ software world swallows “.