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Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names like ‘Dick’ and ‘Cummings’

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Re: Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names like ‘Dick’ and ‘Cummings’

#181

Post by tiemand »

danso wrote: post #16

Besides the humor of how Lyft's filter flagged traditionally Caucasian names like "Cummings" – in addition to the usual issues with non-Western names, e.g. Pimpong and Poon – I'm fascinated/confused how this made it into production? The user database already exists and was currently being used by the live application. Before deploying this new filter onto the production database, wouldn't you do a dry run to get not…

In my team we called it the "Scunthorpe problem". Scunthorpe is a town in northern England.

Re: Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names like ‘Dick’ and ‘Cummings’

#182

Post by lallysingh »

klipt wrote: post #78
qwerty456127 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, let's call that puritan values of abrahamic religions.

Ironically a lot of "puritan" values are now considered "social justice" values. See eg "shirtgate" where an astronomer was castigated by feminists for wearing a shirt with skimpily clad figures, on the basis that it was offensive to women. Ironically, the shirt had been given to him by a feminist woman friend who thought it was liberating.

Meh, someone's always complaining. Also about the moon "landing" and the Earth's supposed roundness.

Re: Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names like ‘Dick’ and ‘Cummings’

#183

Post by daeken »

tiemand wrote: post #181
danso wrote: post #16

Besides the humor of how Lyft's filter flagged traditionally Caucasian names like "Cummings" – in addition to the usual issues with non-Western names, e.g. Pimpong and Poon – I'm fascinated/confused how this made it into production? The user database already exists and was currently being used by the live application. Before deploying this new filter onto the production database, wouldn't you do a dry run to get not…

In my team we called it the "Scunthorpe problem". Scunthorpe is a town in northern England.

Tom Scott did a video on exactly that problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcZdwX4noCE

Re: Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names like ‘Dick’ and ‘Cummings’

#184

Post by inferiorhuman »

winrid wrote: post #114
user5994461 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having worked around payments, I can guarantee you that card networks do check the Card Holder name. Better yet, they can match against first name, last name and middle name to adjust the risk rating of individual transactions. Albeit, this is rarely used to block payments, because if they stopped payments when customers didn't put their middle name the exact way it's written on their card, nobody would be able to pa…

I'm not so sure. I have a credit card under a completely different name (by accident).

I think the claim is that credit card processors don't validate names at payment time. Back before KYC became a thing you could sign up for a credit card with whatever name you preferred. I think it's a bit more strict these days.

Re: Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names like ‘Dick’ and ‘Cummings’

#185

Post by mytailorisrich »

reaperducer wrote: post #65
noodlesUK wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to say, when I first moved back to the U.K. after a long time in the states, I absolutely could not control my shock followed by giggling when people asked if they could bum a fag off me at a pub or suchlike. (Fag is slang for cigarettes for those outside the U.K.)

I've always known the word "fag" to also mean a bundle of sticks, like you'd use to start a fire. I expect the meanings are related. Life seems to be peppered with problems with people with limited vocabularies who would rather make themselves "offended" by something, rather than think. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word_n...

> I've always known the word "fag" to also mean a bundle of sticks, like you'd use to start a fire.

Yes, that is the 'standard', non-slang, definition of 'faggot'.

Social media means that ignorant people suddenly have equal air time...

Re: Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names like ‘Dick’ and ‘Cummings’

#188

Post by jfoster »

danso wrote: post #16

Besides the humor of how Lyft's filter flagged traditionally Caucasian names like "Cummings" – in addition to the usual issues with non-Western names, e.g. Pimpong and Poon – I'm fascinated/confused how this made it into production? The user database already exists and was currently being used by the live application. Before deploying this new filter onto the production database, wouldn't you do a dry run to get not…

What's the upside of deploying this anyway? It's not as though it's similar to Facebook where these names are very publicly visible. It's just the drivers who would see the names.

They could just generate the list of questionable names and get support to give them a call about it or institute a rider identity verification programme.

Re: Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names like ‘Dick’ and ‘Cummings’

#189

Post by wutbrodo »

klipt wrote: post #78
qwerty456127 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, let's call that puritan values of abrahamic religions.

Ironically a lot of "puritan" values are now considered "social justice" values. See eg "shirtgate" where an astronomer was castigated by feminists for wearing a shirt with skimpily clad figures, on the basis that it was offensive to women. Ironically, the shirt had been given to him by a feminist woman friend who thought it was liberating.

There's always some subset of the population whose conception of "morality" consists of blindly bellowing the dogma of the day. It's not weird that the behavior looks identical even though the dogma itself is nominally different.

Re: Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names like ‘Dick’ and ‘Cummings’

#190

Post by SerLava »

zeta0134 wrote: post #29
danso wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Apple endpoint, inconsistent as it was, was a little more permissive than I expected. At least compared to something like the Sony Playstation ID filter; for example, 'hitler' is fine for Apple, whereas Sony seems to block out any ID containing the literal string of 'hitle', e.g. `hitle123987` [0]. Meanwhile, Apple manages to block some of the more esoteric sexual profanity that Sony's filter can miss, e.g. `bung…

I'm still trying to work out what Sony's filter doesn't like about my username (zeta0134) which I've had for ages. The first bit is just the letter "z" in Spanish; there's no deeper meaning. To my knowledge it's not considered offensive in Spanish, but Sony would not let me have it no matter how many variations I tried. Maybe there's some political thing I'm not aware of? Anyway, I switched languages and I'm "zed0134…

"Eta" is a Japanese derogatory slur referring to the descendants of butchers, funeral workers, executioners, and other people who handled dead things for a living. It means filthy person. They are still discriminated against, and in the past it was incredibly severe.

Maybe it's that.

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