Are you average? If not, algorithms might 'screw' you

Are you average in every way, or do you sometimes stand out from the crowd? Your answer might have big implications for how you're treated by the algorithms that governments and corporations are deploying to make important decisions affecting your life. "What algorithms?" you might ask. The ones that decide whether you get hired or fired, whether you're targeted for debt recovery and what news you see, for starters. Automated decisions made using statistical processes "will screw [some] people by default, because that's how statistics works," said Dr Julia Powles, an Australian lawyer currently based at New York University's Information Law Institute.