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A24 TECHNOLOGY
Monday 11 noveMber 2019

In this March 25, 2019, file photo, Jennifer Bailey, vice president
of Apple Pay, speaks about the Apple Card at the Steve Jobs
Theater in Cupertino, Calif.
Associated Press
NY regulator vows In this May 10, 2017, file photo, Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division nominee Makan Del-

to investigate Apple rahim testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing on his nomination, on Capitol Hill
in Washington.
Associated Press
Card for sex bias Top antitrust enforcer warns

tation or any other basis Big Tech over data collection
NEW YORK (AP) — A New race, age, sexual orien-
York regulator is investigat-
ing Goldman Sachs for prohibited by law," said
possible sex discrimination Goldman Sachs spokes- By FRANK BAJAK aggregation and commer- though privacy fits primarily
in the way it sets credit lim- man Andrew Williams. He AP Technology Writer cial use of consumer data," within the realm of consum-
its. The bank denies wrong- added that the bank could CAMBRIDGE, Massachu- which he called "analo- er protection law, it would
doing. not comment on decisions setts (AP) — The Justice gous to a new currency." be a grave mistake to be-
The investigation follows about individual custom- Department's top antitrust He said his office is studying lieve that privacy concerns
a series of viral tweets by ers. official warned Big Tech "the ways market power can never play a role in an-
entrepreneur and web de- Apple did not immedi- companies Friday that the can manifest in industries titrust analysis."
veloper David Heinemeier ately respond to a request government could pursue where data plays a key He cited several studies
Hansson about algorithms for comment. In several them for anticompetitive role," particularly when indicating people's willing-
used for the Apple Card, tweets that were often behavior related to their large amounts of data are ness to "relinquish data for
which Goldman Sachs liked thousands of times troves of user data, includ- amassed that are "quite a fairly small incentive" in-
manages in partnership and frequently retweeted, ing for cutting off data ac- personal and unique in na- cluding a study in which
with Apple. Hansson didn't disclose his cess to competitors. ture" and offers insight into 1,500 students at the Mas-
Hansson said the card of- or his wife's income, but "Antitrust enforcers cannot "the most intimate aspects sachusetts Institute of Tech-
fered him a credit limit 20 wrote that they have been turn a blind eye to the seri- of human choice and be- nology "were willing to
times greater than it gave married a long time, file ous competition questions havior, including personal share the contact informa-
to his wife, even though she joint tax returns and live in a that digital markets have health, emotional well-be- tion of their closest friends in
has a higher credit score. community-property state. raised," Assistant Attorney ing, civic engagement and exchange for only a pizza."
He called the algorithm a He tweeted that appeals General Makan Delra- financial fitness. Robust competition can
sexist program. when she got a far lower him told an antitrust con- That, said Delrahim, can spur companies to offer
A spokeswoman for the credit limit fell on deaf ears. ference at Harvard Law create "avenues for abuse." more and better privacy
New York Department of Fi- When Apple Card finally School. The acquisition of such protections, Delrahim said.
nancial Services confirmed raised her credit limit with- Delrahim did not name any data is especially valuable "Without competition, a
Saturday that the agency out addressing the scoring specific companies, but his for companies in the busi- dominant firm can more
will investigate. system, he tweeted, it was office is investigating com- ness of selling predictions easily reduce quality - such
The agency is "troubled to essentially trying to "bribe panies including Google about human behavior, as by decreasing privacy
learn of potential discrimi- one loud mouth on Twit- while the Federal Trade he said. That's how Google protections - without losing
natory treatment in regards ter, then we don't have to Commission probes Face- and Facebook — which a significant number of us-
to credit limit decisions re- actually examine our faulty book. The House Judiciary dominate global search ers," he said.
portedly made by an algo- faith in THE ALGORITHM." Committee is also con- and social media — attract That has been a major
rithm of Apple Card, issued Apple introduced the Ap- ducting an inquiry looks at targeted advertising. criticism of both Facebook
by Goldman Sachs," said ple Card earlier this year those two companies plus He cited Harvard Business and Google.
spokeswoman Sophia Kim. in a partnership with Gold- Amazon and Apple. School professor emerita Delrahim also said his office
She said the department man Sachs. A press re- All but Apple are members Shoshana Zuboff's theory is being "especially vigilant
"will be conducting an in- lease announcing the card of the Computer and Com- of "surveillance capitalism," about the potential for an-
vestigation to determine called Goldman Sachs "a munications Industry Asso- which holds that the "be- ticompetitive effects when
whether New York law newcomer to consumer ciation , a tech lobbying havioral data" those com- a company cuts off a prof-
was violated and ensure financial services" that group sponsoring Friday's panies acquire through itable relationship supply-
all consumers are treated was "creating a different conference. their nominally free servic- ing business partners with
equally regardless of sex." credit card experience." Delrahim said some of the es is a wholly new kind of key data, code, or other
"Our credit decisions are It pledged not to share or most interesting and alarm- product. Zuboff considers it technological inputs in
based on a customer's sell information to other ing legal issues raised by massively invasive and ex- ways that are contrary to
creditworthiness and not parties for marketing and the rise of the digital econ- ploitative. the company's economic
on factors like gender, advertising.q omy are in the "collection, Delrahim said that "al- interests."q