An animated visual story about the pervasive use of data fusion systems by law enforcement agencies and its impact on human rights.
The Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs is a nonprofit that empowers ethics by identifying and addressing the most critical ethical issues of today and tomorrow. The Ethics Accelerator, one of Carnegie's most recent initiatives, works by convening a group of experts for a day-long workshop focused on the issue of data fusion by law enforcement around the world. To share the results of the initial discussion and reflection, Carnegie wanted to take a different approach and publish a visual story that everyone could relate to. Working closely with the Council, the design team created an engaging visual story that takes the reader on a journey, both explaining what data fusion is and examining the consequences of this technology.
The core concept is a visual metaphor: individual data points fuse together to form powerful inferences about citizens and their activities. The fusion is depicted using an animated Sankey diagram. This diagram shows data points originating from people's everyday activities, such as driving and online transactions. These points then fuse together in the fusion systems, ultimately being used to prosecute people even if they haven't committed a crime.
