Hubbard 1

Mark Hubbard

Professor H. Culik

ENGL 1190-C1622

22 Apr. 2017

Businesses using Digital Redlining: We Are Being Used!

Businesses are surveilling areas and creating very specific business tactics. Is it smart, or is it harmful to our privacy of interests?Digital redlining has become evident in insurance companies, internet providers, and many other businesses. Redlining or “data mining” has put a digital divide on communities all based off of poverty level or “risk factors”. The internet is being turned into a giant information bank of selling knowledge and statistics to the highest bidding companies. With digital redlining in place, certain communities are being held accountable to certain activities that go on in that area making certain individuals to be forced to move to an area of better influence. Certain businesses in today’s day and age arerequiredto store information for their own legal rights, and these companies are taking advantage of it by creating a monopoly in the United States and now selling our personal data to other companies that will pay top dollar for it. Also, how do these companies hold back aspiring young individuals trying to thrive in certain communities that “needed commodities” are required for everyday life?

AT&T is the first example of internet digital redlining because of their different areas of providing high speed internet. Certain communities are being neglected by this internet provider solely on the purpose of poverty level. “As a result, the options for many Black, Latino and low-income communities are paltry. Often, ISPs [1]elect to equip affluent neighborhoods with service and upgrades first, and then neglect to extend that infrastructure to poor urban or rural areas. (AT&T is a prime offender; it forced qualified low-cost broadband recipients to pay full price when their neighborhoods couldn't reach the threshold speed of 3 megabits per second.)” (Tveten). This company is taking advantage of the income being raked in and not changing anything to actually provide the service being bought by the consumer. This study has an interesting approach to the visualization of service providers perpetuating the cycle of poverty. Another great study is a company called Verizon, “The report also asserted that, in conjunction with its data partners, Verizon offers advertisers "targeting packages" directed toward low-income communities that specifically push gambling, cigarette smoking and soda consumption. (None of the above telecommunications companies responded to requests for comment.)” (Tveten). The observation that was specifically portrayed was that telecommunications companies will not accept the fact that they segregate or corner the market to low poverty levels.

The question of holding back aspiring young individuals all comes down to internet service providers and what they have to offer to specific communities.“Research suggests that consumers’ privacy concerns are triggered when consumers become aware that organizations have collected and/or used their personal information without their permission”(Cespedes and Smith 1993). With that collected information, organizations are able to use it either against certain individuals or just plainly use it for their own gifts of plenty.Information like that is considered privacy were users should not have to worry about who is standing over them watching what they are doing. Being a grown adult has never felt like a kid again when their parents are watching their every move ready to punish them.

Information has recently been up for sale with a bill that has just been passed here in the United States where companies are able to buy data from internet providers.“The consequences of passing this resolution are clear: broadband providers like AT&T, Comcast, and others will be able to sell your personal information to the highest bidder without your permission, said Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA)” (Kastrenakes). If these companies have this power to sell all of our information, then what else can they do that we do not know about. Companies are able to buy everyone’s personal interests like browsing history or maybe even banking information. I might as well leave my doors off of my house and every one of the community come in and take everything that is mine.

Within the crossroads of datamining for businesses, how is it that certain zip codes are targeted more than others, and why? A prime example is an insurance company. Insurance is mandatory for cars, houses, and health. I have done a little bit of my own research seeing multiple insurance companies asking a lot of questions they did not necessarily like. From what I have concluded is a company is fed by using information from claims or natural disasters in certain areas. These areas are zip code specific which creates a digital map of what areas insurance can make the most money by having the least amount of risk. This may not be a bad business plan for these companies, but how does that affect the people that live in those areas paying for the provided insurance? The next question I have yet to ask is where would be the best place to live with the lowest insurance prices; because just face it, nobody wants to pay top dollar on mediocre insurance.

All in all, the cycle of poverty has spun for far too long. Recently I have done my own research to find out that insurance companies do actually have maps of certain areas to show which neighborhoods get what benefits. Not only do they get to decide what benefits these neighborhoods get but now they can sell information to segregate even more based off certain area browsing data that was collected by these companies. These maps do exist but are not open to public eyes. With today’s digital age and the over usage of mobile devices datamining is affecting our very lives faster than we know it. With information on who has what internet service or where individuals live puts us right where all these companies want us. Stored data and information should not be up for sale where we cannot take it off the market. There might be some preventative tasks we can take account for, but to be realistic, these measures are not very practical for normal use of our technology.

Works Cited

Tveten, Julianne. "Digital Redlining: How Internet Service Providers Promote Poverty." ,truthout, 14 Dec. 2016, Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.

Lyon, D. (2002). “Surveillance in cyberspace: the internet, personal data, and social control”, Queen’s Quarterly, 109(3), Fall, p.1-12. 4 Apr. 2017.

Kastrenakes, Jacob. "Congress just cleared the way for internet providers to sell your web browsing history." THE VERGE, The Verge, 28 Mar. 2017, 22 Apr. 2017.

Cespedes, Frank V., and Jeff H. Smith. "Congress just cleared the way for internet providers to sell your web browsing history." research gate. , researchgate, Jan. 1993, 22 Apr. 2017.

[1] Internet service providers