Big data works almost exclusively in service of the ruling class, turbo-charging the housing crisis, the climate crisis and the social media machine. These systems should serve human wellbeing and connection. They don’t. Common is proving a connected society doesn’t have to reduce us to data points, and that big data can help build a humane one.
Renting runs on hidden information. Landlords, agents and platforms hold data on tenants; tenants hold close to none. You cannot find out whether your landlord has been fined before, or whether your council enforces at all. The records exist, buried in tribunal decisions, licensing registers and ombudsman findings. We dig them out and hand them back.
We wanted to join the Renters Reform Coalition because evidence shifts no power on its own; it needs people who can wield it. The next fight over the Renters’ Rights Act will be about enforcement, and enforcement is something we can count.