Live data from Hacker News

Data isn't just being collected from your phone, it's being used to score you

chron.com

51–60 of 165 posts

Re: Data isn't just being collected from your phone, it's being used to score you

#51
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The possible silver lining is that companies will quickly realize the data is garbage (which is causing then losses) and stop using it.

Depends on how quick is "quickly". If anything, they seem to be doubling down on this. From my discussions on the subject with people "in marketing", they are really convinced that not only is the data "accurate enough", but that collecting and exploiting it is actually for the client's benefit. I wonder how one would go about quantifying the usefulness of all this tracking, because I doubt it's cheap. The best I cou…

What if most of the marketing is useless in the first place? And most of the data are useless too.

How would they know?

Re: Data isn't just being collected from your phone, it's being used to score you

#52
Aside from being a mostly clickbait puff piece, the solution to this is regulation. All companies collecting data this way need to be subject to exactly the same requirements as the credit bureaus. Citizens need to be told what data is collected, why, when it gets used, and they need easy access to seeing their own data, as well as a well-regulated method for correcting it.

And we could just dramatically limit how much of this can even be used for housing and employment decisions, and crank up the penalties for misuse.

Re: Data isn't just being collected from your phone, it's being used to score you

#53
post #9

I feel like the Chinese style social score system won't have enough support in government for most countries, but we'll receive a decentralized version anyway through corporate overreach. Also, it's always amusing to arrive at an article about data collection and be greeted by this: https://i.imgur.com/d4Z4sdd.png

> Also, it's always amusing to arrive at an article about data collection and be greeted by this: https://i.imgur.com/d4Z4sdd.png

Meta amusement: https://i.imgur.com/E5bFeb3.png

Re: Data isn't just being collected from your phone, it's being used to score you

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 2006, I spent some time in the hospital after a bike accident. Someone who shared my recovery room was an guy with kidney failure & an extremely poor attitude. I learned he was running out of places to get dialysis because he kept treating the staff poorly & getting kicked out of the dialysis centers. Imagine having some poor newly hired receptionist trying to help this near death, abusive asshole & reading a note…

Precisely what the Hippocratic Oath states, take care of all who have the green smiley icon and 70 or more happy points

[deleted]

Re: Data isn't just being collected from your phone, it's being used to score you

#55

Aside from being a mostly clickbait puff piece, the solution to this is regulation. All companies collecting data this way need to be subject to exactly the same requirements as the credit bureaus. Citizens need to be told what data is collected, why, when it gets used, and they need easy access to seeing their own data, as well as a well-regulated method for correcting it. And we could just dramatically limit how mu…

While we're at it, maybe we could enforce easier access to credit information. One report per year with no credit score is absurdly restrictive.

Re: Data isn't just being collected from your phone, it's being used to score you

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least the Chinese system is out in the open. Many private companies surveilling everyone without anyone's knowledge is terrible. Companies using these scores are really only targeting a group of people that allow the collection to happen. My car insurance company would sure love to put a tracker in my car but there is no way in hell that is going to happen. I'm sure my driving style would qualify me for higher rat…

Yes they would, but the flip side of them not being able to price people based on actual driving behavior is by charging all men higher, all single people higher vs married people, and poor people higher based on credit score. Plus why single out insurance companies and ban them from creepily tracking you wherever you go and not all the other companies who do that with your cell phone. Also to be pedantic, the don't…

[deleted]

Re: Data isn't just being collected from your phone, it's being used to score you

#58
post #8

I remember once being in a branch of HSBC trying to sort out a loan. I saw on the screen for my account they had a score of something like "customer behaviour", which was like 54 something. I had drunkenly called HSBC and ended up ranting at the person on the phone a few times (lost cards etc) so I think this was a rating of how well behaved I was towards their staff. The manager I was speaking to changed his tone fa…

Shouldn't you be able to demand an explanation of how that score was calculated under GDPR? I'm really curious as to what it means now!

In Europe, sure. But imho if a customer verbally abuses employees, it's perfectly fair to cease doing business with them.

Re: Data isn't just being collected from your phone, it's being used to score you

#59

A central premise of this article is not correct. If an employer, for example, is using tens of thousands of background data points to deny employment to a person, the employer would need to disclose that to the applicant.[1]. If the things in this article are secret then the law may well be violated. Also, not really the best idea to apply secret proprietary algorithms to these kinds of decisions because you're even…

It seems that such close attention to detail and blind trust to third-party scores will decrease chances of filling the positions and get the needed job done, which is supposedly the main business objective. This again will reduce the hiring succes to the good old chance or buddy-referred chance.

Re: Data isn't just being collected from your phone, it's being used to score you

#60

People are complex. If some piece of code is used to predict my employability based on my facial expressions, there's not much to add. It's already as bad as it gets: you can't say/write anything non vanilla in public because 10 years later some HR snooping app will analyze the sentiment on the post and outright reject you. And we all kind of blindly walking into this no questions asked.

I remember a party that was very interested in facial measurements. They used it to discriminate too. Why should corporations suddenly get away with this now?
Post reply on HN