Use Your Measurement Powers for Evil instead of Good
When Good Measurement Goes Bad:
We all know that our world is governed by the numbers. Yes, there is the occasional maverick who ignores the numbers and goes full speed ahead based on a whim while the numbers, figures and statistics sit quietly in the back seat waiting for the inevitable crash and crumble so they can politely point out what they knew all along (you see my bias here).
We also all know that sometimes technology outpaces morality (genetic cloning…good or bad?) so that morality is running frantically alongside the bus of technological advancement pounding on the side of the bus in hopes it will slow down. It never does.
All that is to say that even good measurement practices can lead to bad outcomes:
In recent news, American Express has come under fire for lowering the credit limits of cardholders who shop at discount stores (like Wal-Mart). This is done through “behavioral scoring,” in which credit issuers model risk based in part on the repayment behavior of other card users that shop at the same establishments that you do. In other words, you’re being judged not just on your own merits, but on those of your fellow shoppers.The logic is impeccable, really…insurance companies have been doing this for years. If you’ve ever been (or aspire to be) a male under 25 years old in the United States, you know how unfair your car insurance premiums are simply because males under 25 have more accidents. So Amex compared the population of folks who don’t pay on time and found that a large percentage of those folks also shopped at Wal-Mart. Ergo, people who shop at Wal-Mart don’t pay their bills on time! Yes, there is a tragic flaw there, but it doesn’t prevent it from happening. Here’s some others:
The timing of traffic lights – when they go from yellow to red – is (logically) a function of the speed limit on the road. However, the increase of remote traffic cameras (that take a picture of the license tag and mail traffic tickets to offenders) has gotten some municipalities seeing green. These gray-hat folks are shortening the yellow light timing and letting the cameras send tickets to all the new red-light runners. Shame, shame.
Of course, the classic: In 1971, Ford Motor Company put the Pinto on the market to compete in the newly emergent small car segment in the US. Reports differ and I’m sure there are folks who would violently disagree, but many folks believe that Ford knew of the fuel tank flaw that could (and did on at least one occasion) result in the car exploding from a rear-end collision. The story goes that they calculated the likelihood of a collision and the cost of legal action (paying victims’ families) and compared that to the cost of recalling and fixing all the cars and made the (incredibly unethical) decision not to recall the car because it was cheaper to pay the families.
So I give you this admonition: go forth with your data to do good, not evil; be guided by your conscience as much as the data. You’ve been warned.
~Geek~
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