In the world of online transactions, trust scores are the new credit scores - but good luck finding out yours
There is a new service called Sift which evaluates someone's personal data based on the websites they access to book a hotel, to log in to accounts and etc. Companies usually use this service to prevent frauds. There are 16,000 different signals that can fit into the "Sift score", and those signals are rated between 1 to 100. The scores help companies to establish if an individual is trustworthy. They could be compared to credit scores, but with Sift, people don't know their score.
There are many questions surrounding the scores itself, like why can't anyone access their own score or how much of an individual's information is shared with them. There is also different concerns for companies using fraud-detection software. About a year ago, a regulation went into effect, the General Data Protection Regulation, which mandates that companies don't store data that can be used to identify real human beings unless they give permission. Also, some numbers might be misleading which might lock out some legitimate customers or let fraudsters through.
The main question is if this new software is a real threat to individuals. A tension is created between privacy and security. Companies need to protect themselves from possible treats and it's technically possible to make user data difficult or impossible to link to a real person.
In the gap between who is taking responsibility for user data—Sift or its clients—there appears to be ample room for the kind of slip-ups that could run afoul of privacy laws. Companies live under increasing threat of prosecution. The solution should be transparency. When a company rejects people as potential customers, it should explain why, even if it gives costumers an idea on how its security systems identified us as risky in the first place.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-secret-trust-scores-companies-use-to-judge-us-all-11554523206?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=8
The main question is if this new software is a real threat to individuals. A tension is created between privacy and security. Companies need to protect themselves from possible treats and it's technically possible to make user data difficult or impossible to link to a real person.
In the gap between who is taking responsibility for user data—Sift or its clients—there appears to be ample room for the kind of slip-ups that could run afoul of privacy laws. Companies live under increasing threat of prosecution. The solution should be transparency. When a company rejects people as potential customers, it should explain why, even if it gives costumers an idea on how its security systems identified us as risky in the first place.
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