How Businesses Are Rating YOU

Note to Self

WNYC Studios

Self-improvement, Tech, Note, Npr, Education, Public, Wnyc, Manoush, York, To, New, Self, Radio, Business, Technology, Relationships, City, Society & Culture, Zomorodi, Newtechcity

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 7 May 2014

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sure, you read Amazon reviews before you buy. Maybe you even take the time to rate those sneakers (“moderate arch support”) that you ordered from Zappos.

But did you know a lot of companies are rating YOU? You probably have a few rankings and scores being kept about you right now.

This week is Part 2 of New Tech City’s exploration into the dark side of rankings in a Reputation Economy. (Here's part 1 if you missed it.)

Host Manoush Zomorodi investigates how she got slapped with a bad Uber rating she wasn't even supposed to know about. But that’s just the beginning. Just as the Fair Credit Report Act regulated the use of personal information in private businesses in 1970, privacy advocates and now the White House are calling for laws that regulate opaque consumer scoring that’s extracted from petabytes of data.

This is happening at banks, in car services, in marketing and more. As data privacy consultant Robert Gellman asks, “Now everybody is scoring everybody all the time on all kinds of characteristics. Do we all have to live according to a certain model in order to be treated properly in this economy?”

All this data may lead to a new brand of “digital redlining,” where some customers get treated better than others based on algorithmic decisions. Data discrimination could solve or replace old style racism. We ask what should or shouldn’t be done about secret consumer scores on this week’s New Tech City.

If you want more stories like this one, subscribe to the podcast, follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello, friend. This is an episode of Note to Self, but from when we used to be called New Text City.
0:06.6	Same good content. Just the old name. Enjoy.
0:10.4	This is New Text City. The show about how technology is changing the way we live.
0:14.8	And you're listening to part two of our exploration into the murky new world of reviews and ratings.
0:21.8	The reputation economy.
0:24.1	Last week we told you a couple of crazy stories.
0:27.1	They said this is on you to take it down. And if you don't take it down within 72 hours, we're going to find you $3,500.
0:33.2	Jen Palmer paid the price for a bad review. Her family's credit was ruined when a company retaliated against her.
0:39.9	And we met the carpet cleaner who had had enough with bad reviews about him on Yelp.
0:44.9	Small businesses can be ruined by defamation.
0:49.4	Online customer reviews can make and break businesses.
0:53.3	But it turns out that we the customers are being rated these days too.
0:58.2	And I found out the hard way. Do you think the customer is always right or does the new technology make things more equal?
1:05.4	Not the customer is not always right. Is not.
1:09.4	This episode is about the flip side of ratings when businesses rate their customers.
1:16.5	I've also asked my counselor, John Pedestner, to lead a comprehensive review of big data.
1:23.6	Well, that comprehensive review happened. And just last week the White House put out a report on how the massive collection of consumer information could be used against us.
1:32.9	We'll reach out to privacy experts.
1:35.0	Now the White House is asking Congress to pass new privacy laws.
1:38.3	Continue to promote the free flow of information in ways that are consistent with both privacy and security.
1:45.1	Because we are being judged by standards that we don't even know about.
1:49.8	Everybody scoring everybody all the time on all kinds of characteristics.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WNYC Studios, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WNYC Studios and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.