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Ecologists and conservation scientists have long acknowledged that biodiversity data reflect legacies of social inequity (see the figure). Although the ramifications of these disparities were easy to dismiss when the application of large-scale biodiversity data was limited to academic biogeography and theoretical conservation prioritizations, the stakes have changed. Biodiversity data carry more influence than ever before (), guiding the implementation of massive multilateral commitments and global investments that will affect nature and people for decades to come—from informing priorities for more than doubling the global area under conservation management to creating international biodiversity offset markets. We examine two contentious questions that arise as we consider the disparities in biodiversity data and their consequences in the wake of contemporary biodiversity policy: Are the best available data really a …