A Blacklist for Renters
Motoko Rich in the New York Times House & Home Section has an article about “a growing problem” for renters — computerized databases of people who have been taken to court by their landlords and successfully defended themselves. These databases, Rich writes, effectively punish renters for exercising their constitutional rights. One of the biggest offenders is the California-based U. D. Registry, but there is also a national company called Registry SafeRent.
It’s a serious problem, and it’s good to see The Times covering it. But its also an old problem: back in 1988, I wrote my Masters’ Thesis on the same topic. And David Burnham wrote about the problem in his 1984 book The Rise of the Computer State. The UD Registry has been around since the early 1970s.
Keep Reading
Most Popular

The dark secret behind those cute AI-generated animal images
Google Brain has revealed its own image-making AI, called Imagen. But don't expect to see anything that isn't wholesome.

The hype around DeepMind’s new AI model misses what’s actually cool about it
Some worry that the chatter about these tools is doing the whole field a disservice.

The walls are closing in on Clearview AI
The controversial face recognition company was just fined $10 million for scraping UK faces from the web. That might not be the end of it.

This horse-riding astronaut is a milestone in AI’s journey to make sense of the world
OpenAI’s latest picture-making AI is amazing—but raises questions about what we mean by intelligence.
Stay connected

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.