Julia Angwin Profile picture
May 28, 2020 6 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Looking to rent an apartment? Prepare to be subjected to the unaccountable algorithms that landlords across the nation are using to screen tenants.

@lkirchner reports in a joint investigation with @MattGoldstein26 of @nytimes /1

themarkup.org/locked-out/202…
They found that these screening companies often use the loosest possible standards for matching names, including so-called “wild-card” searches where the records of anyone whose names shares first three letters similar as yours can be included in your report. /2 Image
Credit bureaus use much stricter standards for name-matching. In 2017, the big three said they would only match records that contained the same name, address and SSN or date of birth. The tenant screening industry has not made a similar commitment. /3

s3.amazonaws.com/rdcms-cdia/fil…
Some of the people most harmed by these loose matching standards are people who tend to share common last names. More than 12 million Latinos, for instance, share just 26 surnames, according to the census. /4 Image
In typical Markup fashion, we show you all our work: 46 contracts public housing authorities have with for-profit screening services and more than 150 lawsuits where tenants alleged that the data in their reports was faulty. /5

themarkup.org/locked-out/202…
And if you want to know what to do if you are confronted with an faulty screening report, @lkirchner breaks down your rights. /end

themarkup.org/ask-the-markup…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Julia Angwin

Julia Angwin Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @JuliaAngwin

Jul 16
Huge investigation from @proof__news today: We reveal the trove of YouTube videos that are being used to train AI models (including Anthropic's Claude).

Yes, it includes all your favorite YouTubers - from @hankgreen to @MrBeast to @khanacademy.

proofnews.org/apple-nvidia-a…
Were your favorite YouTubers' videos secretly used to train AI? Search the dataset that we compiled here:
proofnews.org/youtube-ai-sea…
We launched our YouTube channel today, too. After all, what better way to report on YouTubers' videos being used without their consent than with a YouTube video?

Read 5 tweets
Jun 13, 2023
🧵Amidst rampant surveillance, one bastion of privacy remains – end-to-end encrypted messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp. But dangerous laws are being proposed in US, UK, EU & beyond to force those apps to scan your messages.

My latest for @nytopinion nytimes.com/2023/06/13/opi…
Feeling a sense of deja vu? Yes, you have heard this story before. But it’s worse this time.

Previously, the FBI sought a “master key” that could unlock encrypted content with a search warrant. But they lost after a showdown with Apple in 2016. /2

apple.com/customer-lette…
A luminary lineup of crypto & infosec experts including @rossjanderson @mattblaze @WhitfieldDiffie @matthew_d_green @schneierblog @djweitzner successfully argued that there was no way to keep safe a “master key” that could unlock all encryption. /3

cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/Papers/…
Read 15 tweets
Feb 4, 2023
I’m sad to report that I am leaving @themarkup to pursue other projects, which I will announce soon. It was an honor and a privilege to found @themarkup five years ago to create an investigative newsroom that integrated engineers and journalists. /1
My goal was to use the best of tech – computation, automation, machine learning – to investigate the human impacts of tech. And to do it using the scientific method as our compass rather than the fuzzy concept of “objectivity.” /2
The amazing thing is that it worked! Our precise methodologies allowed us to uncover everything from Google and Amazon self-preferencing to bias in mortgage approval algorithms. These investigations had impact from the halls of Congress to courtrooms across the country. /3
Read 15 tweets
Jan 14, 2023
Let’s talk about consent. Do you feel like you ever properly consented to being surveilled online constantly, having a profile built of your interests and having that profile made available to anyone who could pay for it?

EU regulators don’t think so either. /1
Earlier this month @edpb fined Meta €390 million for not getting proper consent before profiling FB & IG users. It was hailed a huge victory for EU’s landmark privacy law, GDPR, but sadly it may not change how you are profiled. /2
The problem is that GDPR enforcement is not in the hands of the EU, but in the member states. And most Big Tech cases land at the Irish regulator @DPCIreland because that is where many tech European headquarters are based. /3
Read 8 tweets
Jul 30, 2022
The U.S. is closer to passing a federal privacy law than ever. But there’s a catch: it sets a “ceiling” and not a “floor” for state & local privacy laws.

In this week’s newsletter @cam_kerry says that's “the price of getting strong protections.” /1

themarkup.org/newsletter/hel…
But Ashkan Soltani, head of the new privacy agency in California, where a strong privacy law would go into effect next year, tells me the trade-off “is a trap.”

The federal bill “locks into amber” rules that prevent future innovation to protect privacy. /2 Image
The federal bill would also delay privacy enforcement for about two years. California was set to begin enforcing next year, while the fed bill would give the FTC time to prepare guidance and rulemaking.

“I think two years is a reasonable amount of time,” @cam_kerry said. /3
Read 4 tweets
Jun 22, 2022
In light of the recent US settlement with Facebook, I want to tell y’all a story about how hard it is to make change in our algorithmic world, why you need a village of researchers, and why law enforcement agencies need to get better at tech. /1

nytimes.com/2022/06/21/tec…
Six years ago, @terryparrisjr & I bought an ad on Facebook, targeted to only white people looking for housing, using a drop-down menu blocking ads from being seen by different “ethnic affinity groups.” Experts said this violated the Fair Housing Act. /2

propublica.org/article/facebo…
Facebook said it would fix it with an algorithm blocking the use of race in housing, employment & credit ads.

I wondered why it needed an algorithm and didn’t block other protected categories such as age and gender. But FB claimed a win. /3

about.fb.com/news/2017/02/i…
Read 13 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(