What Next TBD: When An Algorithm Raises Your Rent

Slate Technology

Slate

Society & Culture, Technology, History

4.6 • 636 Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2022

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One company’s software is helping set prices for apartments across the country. But when does an algorithm telling landlords how much to charge—by drawing on property data—cross the line from “handy tool” to “illegal price-fixing”? Guest: Heather Vogell, reporter with ProPublica Host: Lizzie O'Leary If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next TBD. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I made you think you was real.
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0:15.0	Something terrible happened last summer,
0:17.0	and I have no memory of what or who hurt me.
0:20.0	No one in my family will tell me. When you're
0:23.0	left for dead, you want answers. We Will Liars. New series, watch now, only on Prime Video. This episode is
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1:01.4	Heather, why don't you just go ahead and introduce yourself?
1:04.9	Tell me who you are and what you do.
1:06.7	I'm Heather Vogel. I'm a reporter with ProPublica, and I've been investigating the rental market for the last year.
1:13.9	Heather owns a home now, one that she bought in 2019, but before that, she'd both rented and owned.
1:20.3	When you were a renter, did you ever give thought to, like, how your rent was calculated?
	...

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