The Secret Water Footprint of AI Technology
A conversation with Shaolei Ren
The Markup challenges technology to serve the public good.
Our journalism is actionable and drives real-world impact. Explore our investigations, tools, and blueprints to see how.
This Just In
Investigations
Our investigations use data-driven journalism and our own engineering expertise to reveal the hidden impacts of how tech is used.
Poorer States Suffer Under New Organ Donation Rules, As Livers Go to Waste
Life-saving liver transplants have plummeted in some Southern and Midwestern states with higher death rates from liver disease, while New York and California have made big gains
Related links:
Investigation: How a Group of Health Executives Transformed the Liver Transplant System
Show Your Work: How We Investigated UNOS’s Liver Allocation Policy
L.A.’s Scoring System for Subsidized Housing Gives Black and Latino People Experiencing Homelessness Lower Priority Scores
An investigation by The Markup found racial disparities in L.A.’s intake system for unhoused people
Related links:
Show Your Work: How We Investigated L.A.’s Homelessness Scoring System
Story Recipe: Journalists: Investigate Homeless Vulnerability Scoring in Your City
Forget Milk and Eggs: Supermarkets Are Having a Fire Sale on Data About You
When you use supermarket discount cards, you are sharing much more than what is in your cart—and grocery chains like Kroger are reaping huge profits selling this data to brands and advertisers
Related links:
Newsletter: Help Make Everyone Cool It with the Data Collection (Starting with Kroger)
Tools
Our tools hold institutions accountable for the way they use technology, pulling back the curtain so readers can see for themselves how technology affects them.
Introducing the United States Place Sampler (USPS)
Easily sample random U.S. street addresses using this new tool from Big Local News and The Markup
Related links:
Investigation: Dollars to Megabits, You May Be Paying 400 Times As Much As Your Neighbor for Internet Service
Show Your Work: How We Uncovered Disparities in Internet Deals
Blacklight
A Real-Time Website Privacy Inspector
Related links:
As Seen In: Websites Selling Abortion Pills Are Sharing Sensitive Data with Google (ProPublica)
Investigation: We Ran Tests on Every State’s COVID-19 Vaccine Website
Introducing Amazon Brand Detector
A browser extension that reveals Amazon brand and exclusive products while you shop on the site
Related links:
Investigation: Amazon Puts Its Own “Brands” First Above Better-Rated Products
Impact: House Antitrust Committee Accuses Amazon of Lying to Congress, Asks DOJ to Investigate
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Blueprints
We publish our datasets, methodologies, story recipes, and processes so communities, journalists, and researchers can check our work and build on our reporting.
Journalists: Investigate Homeless Vulnerability Scoring in Your City
The survey we investigated was also used in dozens of other cities and counties, according to its creators. Here are our tips for looking into it
Journalists, You Should Be Looking for Undocumented APIs. Here’s How to Start
A tutorial on how to build datasets from the hidden feeds powering almost every website on the internet
Related links:
Step-by-Step Tutorial: Finding Undocumented APIs
In 2023, Resolve to Fix Your Organization’s Meta Pixel Problem
It’s time to be proactive about user privacy. Find out if you’re sending too much data to Facebook—or if you need to send data at all
Related links:
Investigation: Tax Filing Websites Have Been Sending Users’ Financial Information to Facebook
Journalists: Investigate Which Neighborhoods in Your City Are Offered the Worst Internet Deals
We analyzed more than 800,000 internet service offers in major U.S. cities. Here’s how you can use our data to report local stories
Related links:
As Seen In: Low-income Memphians receive worse internet service for the same price (MLK50)
As Seen In: Detroit Is Paying Big Money for Slow Internet (Outlier Media)
Impact
Our journalism has driven real-world change—from changes in government policy to the removal of tracking technology.
HHS Plans Breakup of Organ Transplant Monopoly
The move would disrupt the influence of contractor UNOS, whose control of organ sharing has been nearly all-encompassing for decades
Related links:
Investigation: Poorer States Suffer Under New Organ Donation Rules, As Livers Go to Waste
Investigation: How a Group of Health Executives Transformed the Liver Transplant System
Senators Launch Inquiry into Telehealth Companies for Tracking and Monetizing Personal Data
The bipartisan group sent letters to three companies requesting more information about data sharing, citing an investigation from The Markup and STAT
Related links:
Investigation: “Out Of Control”: Dozens of Telehealth Startups Sent Sensitive Health Information to Big Tech Companies
Sen. Elizabeth Warren Questions Tax Filing Companies, Meta, and Google About Sharing of Financial Data
Letters to the companies, signed by Warren and others, cite a recent Markup investigation
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