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The white house will release a report next week on the potential for big data to discriminate by race, religion, income or other criteria. The report reviews the adequacy of existing privacy laws and regulations in the era of online data collection. The review is led by Obama's senior counselor, John Podesta, who will outline concerns about whether methods used for commercial applications may be inherently vulnerable to inadvertent discrimination.
A great example comes from an app called "Street Bump", produced by the Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics in Boston, that detects pot-holes using sensors in smartphones while you drive, which inadvertently directed repair crews to wealthier neighborhoods, because that's where people were more likely to carry smartphones and download the app. John said "It's easy to imagine how big data technology, if used to cross legal lines that we have been careful to set, could end up reinforcing existing inequities in housing, credit, employment, health, and education."
(Score: 4, Funny) by RobotMonster on Monday April 28 2014, @04:51PM
Duh. What's the point of data collection if you can't use it to discriminate?
Think of the childr^H^H^H^H^H insurance companies!
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Monday April 28 2014, @05:45PM
Yes, the NSA is worried it's not getting enough data from the non-Facebook people...