Data, Lending and Civil Rights, Georgetown University Law Center, WPF speaking

WPF Executive Director Pam Dixon will be discussing her research on big data, the financial sector, and civil rights at Georgetown University Law Center April 8, 2015. The event is open to the public.

Event information:

The Leadership Conference Education Fund, the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, and Americans for Financial Reform, together with their partners, the Center for Democracy and Technology, New America’s Open Technology Institute, Open MIC, and Upturn, invite you to participate in a convening of civil rights, consumer and financial inclusion advocates, industry representatives, technologists, academics, and government officials to discuss the role of new forms of data in the future of lending.

Our consumer finance system has come a long way in eradicating many openly discriminatory tactics that have historically been used to shut communities of color out of the economic mainstream. Yet today, those communities still face significant obstacles in obtaining fair and affordable credit, savings, and checking products and services that are essential to financial stability.

Increasingly, critical financial decisions regarding pricing and eligibility are being made automatically by computers, and new data sources are driving more precise marketing. As a result, many conversations about civil rights are also becoming discussions about how computer systems work. Financial inclusion in a world of abundant data is a new frontier — one that we need to work to understand and address together.