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Admiral to price car insurance based on Facebook posts

theguardian.com

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Re: Admiral to price car insurance based on Facebook posts

#11

Post by fredley »

noir_lord wrote: post #10
fredley wrote: post #2

Good. Hopefully this will make people more aware of the consequences of what they share on the internet. With the IP bill in parliament at the moment looking set to pass with minor amendments, this could not be more timely.

That IP bill is a horror show and it's passing with a wink and a nod, I'm fast losing what little faith I had in Government to do the right thing. We seem to have the worst government we've had in my life time (or perhaps I'm just politically more aware of whats going on).

With full support from both the Tories and Labour, there's nowhere serious to turn.

Re: Admiral to price car insurance based on Facebook posts

#12

Post by jpalomaki »

herghost wrote: post #7

It's interesting because they clearly believe they have workable actuarial data to support this, so in many ways good on them for using the data that's available. On the other hand, based on the examples given, it seems this is going to penalise people using language incorrectly - which I would assume can be strongly correlated with poor education. So on that basis, they're going to be saying that poor people are wor…

I would assume things like income and education are already now used in this kind of pricing decisions.

Re: Admiral to price car insurance based on Facebook posts

#14

Post by andybak »

bitJericho wrote: post #4

From the article: "The scheme is voluntary, and will only offer discounts rather than price increases, which could be worth up to £350 a year. However, Admiral has not ruled out expanding firstcarquote." This is not a discount for courteous people. What this is is collection of personal data for advertising and data collection (to be resold) and a good way to advertise to people's friends. And 350 a year? I'll believ…

> What this is is collection of personal data for advertising and data collection (to be resold) and a good way to advertise to people's friends.

I can see nothing to that effect in the linked article. Are you hypothesising or is there something I missed?

I'm not saying it's not plausible but the T+Cs should clarify one way or the other.

Re: Admiral to price car insurance based on Facebook posts

#16

Post by tankenmate »

jpalomaki wrote: post #12
herghost wrote: post #7

It's interesting because they clearly believe they have workable actuarial data to support this, so in many ways good on them for using the data that's available. On the other hand, based on the examples given, it seems this is going to penalise people using language incorrectly - which I would assume can be strongly correlated with poor education. So on that basis, they're going to be saying that poor people are wor…

I would assume things like income and education are already now used in this kind of pricing decisions.

Indeed, often acquired directly, but most often supported through proxies, which often have multiple partial correlations, such as, median house price in the applicant's area, crime rate in the applicant's area, applicant's job title, etc.

Re: Admiral to price car insurance based on Facebook posts

#17

Post by martin-adams »

This to me feels like a step in data privacy that I do not like. Why not issue health insurance based on Google searches?

While it's voluntary, it may be seen as ok. But what happens if you opt not to do anything on social media and you end up with a premium penalty, or worse, refusal to be insured. This happens today when applying for a mortgage. If you've never taken a loan and had no credit history, they have no data to score you against.

I would prefer a mechanism that analysed people's driving behaviour to assess risk, not what I like on Facebook.

Re: Admiral to price car insurance based on Facebook posts

#18

Post by tonylemesmer »

untilHellbanned wrote: post #3

And there goes FB's business model. Nobody is going to post anything once people realize their money is at stake. This seems like a good opportunity for a new friends and family social network.

new service idea: PR friendly facebook accounts. Pay £1 / month to have a 2nd facebook account with auto generated posts that get you discounts on car insurance.

Re: Admiral to price car insurance based on Facebook posts

#19

Post by radiorental »

martin-adams wrote: post #17

This to me feels like a step in data privacy that I do not like. Why not issue health insurance based on Google searches? While it's voluntary, it may be seen as ok. But what happens if you opt not to do anything on social media and you end up with a premium penalty, or worse, refusal to be insured. This happens today when applying for a mortgage. If you've never taken a loan and had no credit history, they have no d…

Apologies.... obligatory reference to Black Mirror. Season 3, Episode 1 'Nosedrive' has covered this to it's dystopian conclusion.

In other news, looking forward to the disruption self driving cars will have on the auto insurance industry.

Re: Admiral to price car insurance based on Facebook posts

#20

Post by anexprogrammer »

andybak wrote: post #15
iwillreply wrote: post #13

Blocked by Facebook: https://news.fastcompany.com/facebook-has-blocked-a-car-insu...

Looks like episode 1 of this series of Black Mirror has got them spooked. ;-) Good call by Facebook in my opinion.

Or they simply haven't agreed to sell that data to Admiral, yet.
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