This week when I went to have blood work done and an identity verification service decided to remind me that my father is dead. This is that story. 🧵
I’m writing this because there’s a sterility to data, but when technology and humanity intersect there becomes question of dignity and care.
The men in my family are dead. My mother and my sisters remain now. I’m not going to go into why my father and brother are dead, nor what killed them.
Jan 28, 2026 23:38It's not merely that they died young, and recently enough to hurt; but also long enough ago that the records should be obvious to any data aggregators.
So when the identity service asked me: "Do you know this person? What is their age range?" Then I had to think. Gee how old is my DECEASED father?
Does the system want to know what age he was when he died or what age he might be if he were still alive today?
Of course, I am a reporter, privacy activist and anthropologist who writes on these subjects so, although this angered and saddened me, I knew it wasn't entirely the fault of the lab.
But I did send a message to them about it and hope they'd put pressure on the identity vendor to use their data to fix the service.
