Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by LaminatorX on Wednesday February 26 2014, @11:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the studies-show-poverty-causes-cancer dept.

Angry Jesus writes:

"The Chicago Police Department is mis-applying epidemiological science (the study of entire populations) to target individuals in a real-life version of Minority Report. They have decided that it is a good idea to put people on a secret list based on a Big Data analysis of their social networks. But don't worry, it isn't racist or abusive because, Science!"

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Lagg on Thursday February 27 2014, @12:36AM

    by Lagg (105) on Thursday February 27 2014, @12:36AM (#7668) Homepage Journal
    No this isn't explicitly racist. Yes the headline can be interpreted as inflammatory. But bias? Really? Is it such a debated point that considering someone's skin color as a data point in their likelihood to commit crime is a bad thing? I mean yes there are statistics that show correlation but what do we always say about causation? I'm not sure if this is white guilt or anti-white guilt right now... Kind of weird these days. The only problem with the summary is that it's not a 100% certainty that they do use data related to skin color and flatly deny it. But the fact that The Verge filed a FIAA because they wanted to verify this and it being denied is telling. Though it's completely possible they just didn't want to give out people's names due to privacy. It's up in the air, sure, but can you really say that police in general are not guilty of judging by someone's skin color? I live in the southwestern US, so I can definitely tell you that they love to do that.
    --
    http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Insightful=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3