FB pixel

World Bank issues report on tech inequality

Categories Biometric R&D  |  Biometrics News  |  ID for All
 

The World Bank released a report last week that found that tech firms are making inequality worse.

While the report notes that growth, jobs, and services are the most important returns to digital investments and that digital technologies should ideally help businesses become more productive; the reports finds that better jobs have not been the result.

The World Bank study notes that the economics of the Internet favor natural monopolies, and that the absence of a competitive business environment can result in more concentrated markets, benefiting incumbent firms. Not surprisingly, the better educated, well connected, and more capable have received most of the benefits, circumscribing the gains from the digital revolution for those with lower incomes.

The report found that nearly 60 percent of the world’s people are still offline and can not fully participate in the digital economy. There also are persistent digital divides across gender, geography, age, and income dimensions within each country. Second, some of the perceived benefits of the Internet are being neutralized by new risks. Vested business interests, regulatory uncertainty, and limited contestation across digital platforms has lead to harmful concentration in many sectors.

In addition, quick expansion of automation, which has heavily impacted mid-level office jobs, have also contributed to a hollowing out of labor markets and to rising inequality.

In general, the report explores the impact of the Internet, mobile phones, and related technologies on economic development. The report found that the perceived benefits of digital technologies are often offset by emerging risks. As an example, many advanced economies face increasingly polarized labor markets and rising inequality, in part because technology augments higher skills while replacing routine jobs.

The report also found that many e-government initiatives have high levels of failure and that both governments and corporations are using digital technologies to control citizens, not to empower them.

In response, the report proposes policies to expand connectivity, accelerate complementary reforms in sectors beyond information and communication technology (ICT), and address global coordination problems.

The report is available free-of-charge for available download.

Article Topics

 |   |   |   |   | 

Latest Biometrics News

 

Facial recognition comes to the fairway with US Open deployment

For the second year in a row, the U.S. Open golf tournament is using biometrics for ticketing, through partnerships with…

 

NZ retailers adopt FRT to fight retail crime following privacy commissioner report

A host of major New Zealand retailers are signing up to deploy facial recognition technology in their stores. The bosses…

 

Au10tix gets nod from Microsoft as ideal solution for AI agents built in MS Copilot

At the recent Microsoft Build event, Au10tix got a public endorsement from Microsoft as an ideal match for AI agents…

 

UK inches towards digital ID clarity with passage of Data (Use and Access) Bill

The UK House of Lords has passed the government’s Data (Use and Access) Bill, bringing it within a royal signature…

 

Age assurance trial on track amid sweeping online regulatory changes in Australia

Australia’s Age Assurance Technology Trial is going well, thank you very much. That’s the gist of a post from the…

 

Airport biometric screening expands across US amid calls for federal oversight

Biometrics is steaming ahead for air travel, but privacy concerns remain while consumers are still becoming aware of modern changes….

Comments

6 Replies to “World Bank issues report on tech inequality”

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Biometric Market Analysis

DIGITAL ID for ALL NEWS

Featured Company

ID for ALL FEATURE REPORTS

BIOMETRICS WHITE PAPERS

BIOMETRICS EVENTS

EXPLAINING BIOMETRICS