From Self-Tracking to AI Ethics: My Living Laboratory

5 Bias Discoveries

After 6+ years of research with 30 participants from Germany, Poland, and the USA – plus my own body as a living laboratory – I’ve uncovered systematic discrimination in seemingly „neutral“ self-tracking technology. My ethnographic study reveals: Every app, every sensor, every algorithm carries inherent bias.

The stories of my participants – and experiences with my own body – consistently revealed the same 5 discrimination patterns:

– Gender Bias in Fitness Apps: Calorie calculations and heart rate zones are calibrated for male bodies – women often receive harmful recommendations, especially during menstrual cycles.

– Cultural Bias in Sleep Trackers: Algorithms rate siesta cultures as „suboptimal“ and pathologize non-Western sleep patterns as unhealthy.

– Ableist Bias in Health Apps: „Normal“ standards discriminate against people with disabilities and can lead to dangerous self-optimization.

– Productivity Colonialism: Pomodoro apps reduce creative work processes to mechanical efficiency and completely ignore individual biorhythms.

– Neurocolonialism in EEG Devices: Brainwave devices reduce millennia-old meditation to measurable brain waves and commodify consciousness.

Which case study resonates most with you – and why?

Detailed case studies coming soon to this feed. Looking forward to hearing from your experiences.