10: The Right To Be
COMPENSATED FOR DIGITAL LABOR & DATA
All people shall be compensated for the work of creating their digital data, whether taken from browsing online, creating content, or other internet labor.
Yulkendy Valdez
Shaped by her upbringing in community-built systems of survival and innovation, and by her work as an entrepreneur in the technology and startup ecosystem, Yulkendy Valdez brings a generational understanding of how creativity, intellect, and labor have always existed in underserved communities, even when recognition and compensation have not. This right reflects her belief that the digital economy must finally honor participation as labor and creativity as ownership.
If I could add one right to the Bill of Rights, it would be the right to be compensated for the digital labor and data we create. We are living in an economy where value is generated constantly from our actions, our ideas, our behavior, and our creativity. Yet we are taught to see this participation as passive, when in reality it is labor.
From an early age, I was surrounded by innovation. Not the kind that gets funded or patented, but the kind that allows communities to survive. I watched people build informal transportation systems, shared financial practices, and simple technologies that kept daily life moving. The people around me were brilliant problem-solvers. Their ideas were powerful. What was missing was not intelligence or creativity, but ownership and recognition.
That same disconnect exists today, only now it is happening at the scale of the digital economy.
Latinos are among the most digitally engaged communities in the country. We share, post, comment, shop, create, influence culture, and move markets. Our data is constantly being generated, captured, and used to build massive technologies, including artificial intelligence systems. But the value created from that labor rarely comes back to our communities. We are not being compensated for our intellectual property, and that absence is widening already significant wealth gaps.
We are all workers in this new economy, even when we think we are resting. When we scroll, search, shop, or stream, we are producing value. Our data is captured every second, yet we are taught to see this as normal participation rather than economic contribution. That invisibility is dangerous. It allows extraction without accountability.
What concerns me just as much as the economic harm is the structural exclusion that follows. When communities are not part of design and decision-making, the technology built from our data does not reflect our realities. We should be as afraid of a racist algorithm as we are of a racist person. These systems show up in real life: when people are misdiagnosed, prescribed the wrong medication, overlooked by technologies that cannot see us, or placed in danger by systems that were never built with us in mind. This is what happens when labor is taken without consent, ownership, or representation.
In many ways, this is the newest version of an old problem. Wage gaps and inequitable labor systems have always existed. It is not surprising to see the same broken structures replicated in technology. The difference now is speed and scale. Wealth is being generated faster than ever, off the backs and minds of people who are never paid.
I don’t believe technology is inherently harmful. I have spoken with Black and Latino tech entrepreneurs who are building companies with intention. They create community advisory boards. They compensate people for their expertise. They embed accountability into design. Often, it is entrepreneurs of color and women who carry the extra responsibility of building ethically, ensuring technology serves people rather than exploits them. When done right, technology becomes a tool for equity, not extraction.
These conversations are still new. Not long ago, caregiving and domestic labor were not even recognized as work. Women were expected to provide labor without compensation or protection. Today, digital labor exists in that same invisible space. We are producing value constantly, yet we are denied ownership and agency.
I come from a humble immigrant family from the Dominican Republic. I remember getting to school by calling a motoconcho, paying cinco pesos, relying on systems built entirely by the community. Those models existed long before ride-share companies. The same is true of communal savings groups that fintech companies now monetize. These ideas come from generational wisdom. None of this is new. What is new is who gets paid.
We have been made to accept extraction as normal. But balance is possible. Compensation is not about charity. It is about justice. It is about recognizing that participation in the digital economy is labor, and labor deserves ownership.
Adding the right to be compensated for digital labor and data would restore that balance. It would recognize our intellect, creativity, and contributions as assets. It would ensure that the people powering this economy finally share in the wealth it creates.
This right is not about limiting innovation. It is about honoring it. It is about making sure the future is built with us, not from us.