As with all things in this age of advanced technology and cellular telephony, there is an application for almost everything. From, finding restaurants to locating a lost cell phone. But does Microsoft take this to another, almost even racist level?
Some think so with a new app being developed by the software giant. The application, has already been nicknamed the ‘Avoid The Ghetto’ app. That’s right, if you want to avoid the ghetto? There’s an app for that.
According to U.S. patent paperwork , the application is not currently on the market, but is scheduled to be released as a Microsoft GPS feature called “Pedestrian Route Production.” The documentation states, “as a pedestrian travels, various difficulties can be encountered, such as traveling through an unsafe neighborhood or being in an open area that is subject to harsh temperatures. ”
The software functions by using CMPD’s community crime mapping feature, and informs its users of areas that Microsoft’s new technology might tell you to avoid. Big blue dots indicate areas where there have been 10 or more reported incidents in roughly the last 12 months. The Microsoft technology would determine unsafe neighborhoods using violent crime statistics.
Several groups including the Dallas National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) have voiced their outrage. “‘I’m going to be up in arms about it if it happens … It’s almost like gerrymandering,’ said the organization’s president Juanita Wallace in an statement to CBS. ‘It’s stereotyping for sure and without a doubt. I can’t emphasize enough — it’s discriminatory’ during a recent interview with CBS.
According to Microsoft’s claims, your Windows 7 smartphone would gather “information related to pedestrian travel include maps (e.g., extracted from a database), user history, weather information, crime statistics, and demographic information.” –torrance stephens
