What Landlords Have on You
Automated background checks help landlords decide who gets to rent their properties. They’re deeply flawed.
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Episode Notes
Over the last decade, born from the chaos of the 2008 financial crisis, automated tenant screening has grown into a billion-dollar industry. Now, nine out of 10 landlords rely on automated tenant-screening reports, scraped from eviction history, criminal records, and terror watch lists, to decide if they can trust potential renters. The problem? Often, the reports contain major errors, mistaken identities, and criminal records that are supposed to be expunged. Can these reports really be trusted?
Guest: Lauren Kirchner, investigative reporter at The Markup
Original reporting with Matthew Goldstein, reporter at the New York Times
