The Sesame Credit system produces a “holistic” rating of “character” with algorithmic learning that goes far beyond the timely payment of bills and loans. Algorithms evaluate and rank purchases (video games versus children’s books), education degrees, and the quantity and “quality” of friends. One reporter’s account of her Sesame Credit experience warns that the algorithm veers into “voodoo,” considering the credit scores of her social contacts, the car she drives, her job, school, and a host of unspecified behavioral variables that supposedly “correlate with good credit.” The shadow text
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