Wednesday, March 18, 2015

The Black Box Society Author: Frank Pasquale Publisher: Harvard University Press ASIN: 0674368274

About This Book

Every day, corporations are connecting the dots about our personal behavior―silently scrutinizing clues left behind by our work habits and Internet use. The data compiled and portraits created are incredibly detailed, to the point of being invasive. But who connects the dots about what firms are doing with this information? "The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money" argues that we all need to know and to set limits on how big data affects our lives.

Hidden algorithms can make (or ruin) reputations, decide the destiny of entrepreneurs, or even devastate an entire economy. Shrouded in secrecy and complexity, decisions at major Silicon Valley and Wall Street firms were long assumed to be neutral and technical. But leaks, whistleblowers, and legal disputes have shed new light on automated judgment. Self-serving and reckless behavior is surprisingly common, and easy to hide in code protected by legal and real secrecy. Even after billions of dollars of fines have been levied, underfunded regulators may have only scratched the surface of what's going on and how it harms consumers.

Pasquale exposes how powerful interests abuse secrecy for profit and offers some ways to rein them in.