Sketch Factor App: For Unsafe Areas in Racial Discrimination Line

Sketch Factor App which launched on Friday uses crowd-sourced data from users to pinpoint sketchy areas as well as to provide safe walking directions.

The app allows users to submit sketchy reports and others to vote on whether or not the tips are helpful. Sketch Factor is just one of many products that aim to crowd source safety information about the areas in which users live and walk - and it is not the first to be hit with the racial discrimination label.

In fact, several alarming red flags pop up when one looks at the region around the bureau. But in reading the comments, some reports are not as threatening.

There's a homeless shelter or something that houses the poor here. The residents hang out front and never bother anybody, but it's uncomfortable as you pass an otherwise nice area, reads one.

It is comments like these that have landed the app's founders, Allison McGuire and Daniel Herrington, in hot water.

A tool like Sketch Factor might actually be incredibly powerful for a community in building safety by allowing people to share stories but it really does depend on the background. You could imagine a community that might have a xenophobic tendencies or exclusionary tendencies to use an app like that as an extension of already existing biases.

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