Author: Stephen Spielberg
Publisher: N/A
Publication Year: 2002
Summary: The following film starring Tom Cruise concerns a future where people are arrested by a “Pre-Crime” unit before a crime is committed. There are several biases involved in this practice since certain groups of people may be targeted more than others based on past history. About halfway through the movie, ulterior motives for the founding of the Pre-Crime unit are uncovered by the main character, who learns that he is about to be arrested despite his generally moral character. In real life, some form of pre-crime, known as predictive policing, has been hotly debated for privacy and transparency concerns. The main lessons to take from the movie are to make people aware of when data is being collected on them and the importance of considering permissions for collecting data. Finally, data scientists should be transparent about the intentions of how the data being collected will be used.