Posts

Showing posts from September, 2007

Social Screening?

Ok , here's the first topic, I'm starting simple. We have all at some point been subject to one form of social screening, whether it is our car insurance company upping our premium on receipt of our postcode, or our bank or credit card company rating our risk as a fraudster or potential debtor by means of our housing type, marital status or income. My topic for discussion today sees this system taken one step further. Call centres have begun to tag particular numbers within their customer databases in order to differentiate between 'less desirable' and 'more desirable' customers. Callers who are deemed to be more affluent are often dealt with as a priority. You as the customer are being assessed, classified and dealt with accordingly. Britain has already been subdivided into 17 groups categorised by the likelihood of that area having high levels of 'financial services fraud', based on social profiles of each area, by Leeds University Credit Management Re