For ten years, activists and theorists have been developing a critique of "algorithms" (which have undergone numerous renamings over the same time, e.g. "filter bubbles"), with the early critiques focusing on the way that these can misfire with dreadful (or sometimes humorous) consequences, from discrimination in which employment and financial ads get served to the "dark patterns" that "maximized engagement" with services that occupied your attention but didn't bring you pleasure. Read the rest

Patagonia's iconic "power vest" is a favorite for co-branded company swag, but the company has quietly enacted a new policy that shuts out h oil, drilling, dam construction, etc. companies" as well as some "financial institutions" on the grounds that they are "environmentally damaging." Read the rest

Back in July, Senator Mark Warner [D-VA, @MarkWarner, 202-224-2023] introduced S.1642 - The Protecting Consumers' Access to Credit Act of 2017, which bans states from capping the interest rates charged by payday lenders who serve poor and vulnerable people, so long as the payday lenders partner with a national bank. Read the rest