Automating inequality : how high-tech tools profile, police, and punish the poor
Virginia Eubanks (Author)
The state of Indiana denied one million applications for health care, food stamps, and cash benefits in three years - because a new computer system interpreted any application mistake as "failure to cooperate." In Los Angeles, an algorithm calculates the comparative vulnerability of tens of thousands of homeless people in order to prioritize them for an inadequate pool of housing resources. In Pittsburgh, a child welfare agency uses a statistical model to try to predict which children might be future victims of abuse or neglect. Since the dawn of the digital age, decision making in finance, employment, politics, health care, and human services has undergone revolutionary change. Today, automated systems control which neighborhoods get policed, which families attain resources, and who is investigated for fraud. While we all live under this new regime of data, the most invasive and punitive systems are aimed at the poor. Virginia Eubanks systematically investigates the impacts of data mining, policy algorithms, and predictive risk models on economic inequality and democracy in America. Full of heart-wrenching and eye-opening stories, this deeply researched and passionate book could not be timelier--Publisher's description
Print Book, English, 2018
First edition View all formats and editions
St. Martin's Press, New York, NY, 2018
260 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
9781250074317, 9781466885967, 9781250215789, 1250074312, 1466885963, 1250215781
1013516195