Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy

by Cathy O'Neil

In New York State, for example, a dip in a driver’s credit rating from “excellent” to merely “good” could jack up the annual cost of insurance by $255.

in Florida, adults with clean driving records and poor credit scores paid an average of $1,552 more than the same drivers with excellent ...

We’ve already discussed how the growing reliance on credit scores across the econom...

This is yet another example of that trend, and an egregious one—especially since auto insurance is ma...

From the auto insurer’s perspective, it’s a win-win.

A good driver with a bad credit score is low risk and superhigh reward.

What’s more, the company can use some of the proceeds from that policy to address the in...

Those might include the drivers with pristine credit reports who pay low premiums and cra...

That may sound a tad...

But consider the price optimization algorithm at Allstate, the insurer self-branded a...

According to a watchdog group, the Consumer Federation of America, Allstate analyzes consumer and demographic data to determine the likelihood th...

If they aren’t likely to, it makes sense to c...

And that’s just what Alls...

The resulting pricing is unfair. This abuse could not occur if insurance pricing were transparent and customers could easily comparison-shop.

But like other WMDs, it is opaque.

Every person gets a different experience, and the models are optimized to draw as much money as they can from...

The result—another feedback loop—is that poor drivers who can least afford outrageous premiums are squee...

When I talk to most people about black boxes in cars, it’s not the analysis they object to as much as the surveillance itself.

People insist to me that they won’t give in to monitors.