A Spanish firm called Bismart has developed software that allows public agencies to predict the needs of dependent elderly people before an emergency occurs. The system aggregates data related to “social services, health, population, economic activity, utility usage, waste management and more” to give risk assessment analysis for the elderly (Algorithm Watch 2019). The company hopes to transition home care for the elderly from a “palliative to a proactive approach”, as well as allocate health care resources in the most efficient way possible (ibid).
Both the right to privacy and to non-discrimination could potentially be affected by this software. Given the amount of data sources that are processed in order to make the predictions, the system poses a substantial risk to reproducing structural biases already existing in society.
