Hello All,

I’m researching online articles to assign next semester that cover the same material as Weapons of Math Destruction so that students can read more in-depth about specific circumstances and don’t have to spend money on buying the book, and I found something very scary that I had forgotten O’Neil talks about in Chapter 8.

In addition to credit scores, which you all have at least heard of, there are also secret “e-scores” that use as much internet and financial data as they can find about you to determine what ads you receive. Link to the story here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703294904575385532109190198

Another here: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/business/electronic-scores-rank-consumers-by-potential-value.html

That particular WSJ article talks about how credit card companies use the escores to decide which card offers to market to consumers, but it also talks about how car companies and other businesses (especially online businesses) might use them.

Also almost 50% of employers use credit score data in deciding who to hire, so….good credit is not just important for getting apartments and cars.