New iPhone App Increases Corporate Transparency by Sharing Key Financial Data

A new iPhone app offers users increased insight into corporate behavior. With BizVizz, launched February 4, users can snap a picture of a brand’s logo to get a simple screengraphic that instantly displays financial data about the corporation. How much tax do they pay? How much money do they get in government in subsidies?

By Jennifer Elks | Published 11 years ago | About a 3 minute read

Filmmaker Brad Lichtenstein, president of 371 Productions, was motivated to create the app because his new documentary As Goes Janesville followed a company obtaining taxpayer dollars without so much as a public hearing. “I watched the democratic process being subverted and felt we should do something on a grander scale to make corporate behavior more transparent,” he said, “especially when we’re all called on to do our part during tough economic times.”

371 teamed up with Faculty Creative, a Philadelphia-based digital creative agency to develop BizVizz. Their goal was to make the app both useful — a “wikepedia” of corporate accountability stats — and fun to use. Snapping photos of brands is addictive. They also created a website and an open API.

Seeking a wider audience for BizVizz, 371 teamed up with fellow filmmakers, Vicky Bruce and Karin Hayes, whose 2012 Sundance film We’re Not Broke exposes how US multinational companies offshore profits to avoid paying tax. Together they are working with non-profits including the Tax Justice Network-USA, US PIRG, and the F.A.C.T. coalition, a coalition of organizations that promote transparency and tax compliance. 371 is working with nonprofit Citizens for Tax Justice to obtain data on corporate tax payments; nonpartisan nonprofit Sunlight Foundation, whose Influence Explorer API supplies BizVizz with campaign finance data; and DC-based nonprofit Good Jobs First, whose Subsidy Tracker website and staff provided the research on state and local government subsidies of corporations.

371 believes that BizVizz will appeal to consumers who prefer to “shop their values,” citizens and activists concerned with corporate accountability, and reporters on the economics beat. Walking down the shopping aisle taking pictures of brands reveals how most are owned by only a few companies. Users can discover that Boeing received over $450,000,000 from South Carolina in subsidies to help build their now-grounded Dreamliner; that Wells Fargo, recipient of at least $25 billion in bailout funds, paid negative tax; or that the fiscal cliff deal actually extended a tax break that allowed GE to once again file for a refund instead of paying tax in 2013. “This is public information,” says Lichtenstein. “We’re just making it visible.”

371 is working with the organizations that helped build BizVizz as well as the AFL-CIO and US-PIRG on alerts for users about ways in which they can get involved in corporate accountability campaigns, learn about relevant legislation or read a new report or timely news story. 371 and Faculty are already looking to the next phase of development which will include hundreds more companies, an Android version of BizVizz, and a location-based feature that will let users know when brands nearby are in the app.