Avoid the Ghetto App.

Water Cooler
#1

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-57355325-501465/microsoft-avoid-ghetto-patent-sparks-controversy/

I would bet my neighborhood is in this app. Just saying.

Microsoft “avoid ghetto” patent sparks controversy

CNET reported that Microsoft has been granted a U.S. patentthat will steer pedestrians away from areas that are high in crime.

“As a pedestrian travels, various difficulties can be encountered, such as traveling through an unsafe neighborhood or being in an open area that is subject to harsh temperatures,” Microsoft stated in their patent claims. “A route can be developed for a person taking into account factors that specifically affect a pedestrian. Moreover, the route can alter as a situation of a user changes; for instance, if a user wants to add a stop along a route.”

It’s been coined the “avoid ghetto” GPS patent, but its purpose is a bit more complex.

What the technology actually does is collects and analyzes data to give the users the best possible route home. According to Microsoft’s claims, your Windows 7 smartphone would gather “information related to pedestrian travel include maps (e.g., extracted from a database), user history, weather information, crime statistics, demographic information.”

After data has been gathered, Microsoft says a smartphone could be set to “at least one criterion, such as keeping a user safe.”

If used as Microsoft intends, the directions can be used to determine whether or not you should be walking, depending on the weather or commute pattern. The purpose of the patent doesn’t seem as nefarious as it’s been depicted.

The part of this patent should raise concern is the section that state a device could be programmed to integrate an “advertisement component” with a set of directions. Meaning, not only might we take the long way home, we may also be forced to pass by billboards at Microsoft’s will. Yikes!

#2

What happens if you are walking within two locations which are both in a high-crime area?

#3

just avoid minorities

#4

A double slap in the face, this app is discussed days before MLK day. Bill G must be one heck of a bigot.

#5

Microsoft never mentioned geographic ethnic composition as part of their program. They used crime statistics alone. How is this racist? The only racism is from people who allege racism on Microsoft’s part. These people are the ones that unprovokingly associated crime with race, not Microsoft.

#6

/sarcasm

#7

The app includes demographics. They could easily plug a race factor into their regression.

#8

So, the question is, why would you assume that they would use a race factor? Why not just poverty? Are you saying that people of certain races must be poor? You aren’t a racist, are you?

#9

cuz its hard to determine who is poor easier to determine a minority …usually these people are poor ergo…

#10

^ correct. I’m not saying they could not use things like poverty, education, income, etc. They could. They could also easily add a race factor.

#11

About time.

#12

They *could* use race as a factor, but why would you assume this unless you already have some bias against certain races? They could easily use any random factor that you can think of. So, why would you assume that race was a factor that they chose, just out of easiness? Imagine this conversation: Girlfriend: Here are some places I would like to go for dinner. Soppi: Why did you pick these places? I must assume that race of restaurant owners was a factor. Girlfriend: What the…?? Change of context: Microsoft: We made this map algorithm that factors in crime rates, weather and natural hazards. Random guy: Why did you pick these factors? Clearly race was a factor. Microsoft: What the…??

#13

Furthermore, why would you assume that race information is easier to obtain than poverty information? Every single person who files taxes reports their income every year. Where does race information come from?

#14

Ohai, you’re not seriously this PC are you? Let’s all be very, very candid for a second. Instead of running an app that looks at a huge amount of variables looking for “crime,” how about one that just eliminates neighborhoods that are predominately black and/or hispanic? White people, me included, would buy the hell out of it. I don’t consider myself racist. But, I certainly don’t want to wind up in The Wire when traveling to Baltimore. People voluntarily choosing to avoid others is not racist. Now if white people bought an app for blacks that directed them away from white neighborhoods, that’d be racist. Edit: I was just thinking…how about eliminating the word “avoid” from the name of the app? Instead, just create an app that identifies areas by race. Then you could determine where you wanted to go or not go.

#15

I’m not saying that it must be racist to make an app that filters out black/hispanic areas. I’m saying that there is not evidence to assume that Microsoft did that at all. They used crime statistics. Period. Thus, if someone insists that somehow filtering crime statistics is racist, then that person must have some horrible bias.

#16

No, Sweeptheleg, what you described is pretty much the definition of racism, i.e. having prejudged a person or group of people based on their ethnicity.

#17

So you wouldn’t use the app?

#18

I remember when I visited this University in the U.S., they gave us maps of the city as part of our orientation package and there was a big empty area on it. First I thought it was a lake or something, but days later I drove that way and found it was a crime ridden area whose predominant ethnic composition was totally different to that of the campus and its vicinity. I thought I was to be robbed/assaulted any second until I found my way out. I could have used that App.