Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images • Hacker News Board

Re: Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images

#261

Post by xcv123 » Sat, Apr 06, 2024, 8:23 PM UTC

gmd63 wrote: post #67

Insurance bothers me for a few reasons: 1. What pisses me off more than anything else, it enables fraud that otherwise wouldn't exist. People manufacturing calamities and then claiming insurance allows dishonest people to get ahead in life over people who are honest and concerned enough about the future to buy insurance. Additionally, insurance fraud is net bad relative to other types of fraud because it encourages c…

> So, a company allegedly tasked with helping the public live safely wanted me to, at the time, ask my COVID infected host to waltz in to the doctor's office and spread around a pathogen that could kill patients. Nice.

No. That is done over the phone or video chat. Not required to physically attend a doctors appointment in order to obtain a doctors note for COVID infection. It's called telemedicine or virtual consultation.

Re: Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images

#262

Post by _tom_ » Sat, Apr 06, 2024, 8:24 PM UTC

consultutah wrote: post #3

Vexcel doesn’t use drones. They use manned aircraft. Drones are almost never used for insurance. There are a couple of companies that do, but the costs are still too high for it to make sense.

I suspect the only reason they don't use drones is range. Once they have a match, it'll be drones all the way.

Re: Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images

#263

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Apr 06, 2024, 8:24 PM UTC

t0mas88 wrote: post #151

steelframe wrote: post #85

I'm not sure the degree to which insurance companies are legally allowed to share information such as aerial photographs with each other. When I worked at Google I knew a developer who was building a prototype service similar to Google Flights, except for auto and home insurance. I don't think that product ever shipped. The dev on that team told me that a key thing they learned while doing the analysis is that the op…

I think the most common reason is that insurance companies try to attract new customers with lower rates / discounts and welcome gifts. Switching every year means a new insurance company spends their acquisition money on you every year.

[deleted]

Re: Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images

#264

Post by kristjansson » Sat, Apr 06, 2024, 8:26 PM UTC

2four2 wrote: post #230

djha-skin wrote: post #199

I used to work for Verisk, an insurance tech holding company, who owned a company that took pictures of people's roofs using airplanes and special cameras. They got sued over a patent violation with EagleView[1], who claimed the tech idea as their own, and settled. > The strategic alliance allows customers seamless and integrated access to EagleView technology within Verisk’s Xactware platform Xactware is a product t…

I recently started going through many big data collectors and expressing my rights to know, delete, and stop selling my information. Verisk makes the process notoriously difficult compared to other companies, you have to start an "ethics" report in their ticketing system https://secure.ethicspoint.com/domain/media/en/gui/69464/ind...

Real question: is something like aerial photography of your roof really subject to privacy laws?

Re: Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images

#265

Post by zamfi » Sat, Apr 06, 2024, 8:26 PM UTC

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #148

myself248 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought risk pooling was the point?

> I thought risk pooling was the point? The point is pooling unpredictable risk. You don't know ahead of time if your house is going to flood. You do know ahead of time if your house is on a flood plane. Therefore, people with houses on a flood plane pay more for flood insurance. The alternative is that low risk customers can't get insurance because they'd have to pay the same as high risk customers and that isn't wo…

> is on a flood plane.

You mean like this one? https://www.yahoo.com/news/united-airlines-flight-diverted-t...

…I’ll see myself out.

Re: Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images

#266

Post by woopsn » Sat, Apr 06, 2024, 8:26 PM UTC

sircastor wrote: post #12

I'm going to assume that nobody's insurance premiums or deductibles are going down from this data. No analysis is making the insurer say "Oh, that roof is in much better condition despite its age." Insurance feels like the biggest scam in the history of the world. You are legally obligated to pay us for nothing, most of the time.

The insurance scam is, classically, someone getting a policy on an asset they know is worthless, going to catch fire, suddenly die, etc. -- and you do pay higher rates as a result.

Re: Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images

#267

Post by xcv123 » Sat, Apr 06, 2024, 8:28 PM UTC

gmd63 wrote: post #105

nradov wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did policy actually state around medical reasons for trip cancellation? I'm not aware of any insurers that would accept a home COVID-19 test to justify a claim since it isn't reliably tied to any particular patient.

They don't allow at home tests. That's my point. If I had wanted my claim to go through, I would have needed to tell my host, who at the time was infectious, to go have a doctor confirm it. So the price to defend against fraud--which, related to my point #1, is prevalent enough such that Generali has this policy--is to ask infected people to spread their sickness in doctors offices just so they can use doctors as too…

The host can book a virtual appointment and get a doctors certificate online. It is easy and done in a few minutes. The insurer should have told you that.

Re: Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images

#268

Post by steelframe » Sat, Apr 06, 2024, 8:29 PM UTC

CapmCrackaWaka wrote: post #222

t0mas88 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the most common reason is that insurance companies try to attract new customers with lower rates / discounts and welcome gifts. Switching every year means a new insurance company spends their acquisition money on you every year.

Yeah, people like to think there’s all kinds of grand conspiracies out there when it comes to insurance companies. But they’re all actually very, very boring. All of these pricing algorithms are filed with the DOI, and are public. There is nothing crazy in them. The reason prices to go up at renewal is because that’s just the optimal economics of insurance companies. Get you in at a competitive new business rate and…

> But they’re all actually very, very boring.

In fact they're actuarially very, very boring!

Re: Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images

#269

Post by lamontcg » Sat, Apr 06, 2024, 8:29 PM UTC

> “If your roof is 20 years old and one hailstorm is going to take it off, you should pay more than somebody with a brand new roof,”

If you've been paying for insurance for 20 years with one company, then I'd say that is certainly a dick move to drop you right before it might pay out. What even is the point then?

Re: Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images

#270

Post by kbos87 » Sat, Apr 06, 2024, 8:30 PM UTC

2four2 wrote: post #230

djha-skin wrote: post #199

I used to work for Verisk, an insurance tech holding company, who owned a company that took pictures of people's roofs using airplanes and special cameras. They got sued over a patent violation with EagleView[1], who claimed the tech idea as their own, and settled. > The strategic alliance allows customers seamless and integrated access to EagleView technology within Verisk’s Xactware platform Xactware is a product t…

I recently started going through many big data collectors and expressing my rights to know, delete, and stop selling my information. Verisk makes the process notoriously difficult compared to other companies, you have to start an "ethics" report in their ticketing system https://secure.ethicspoint.com/domain/media/en/gui/69464/ind...

I’ve thought about doing this myself and I wish there was a service that made it easier.

The one thing in the back of my mind is also that there’s a risk of this backfiring over time. When you are unknown to potential creditors, employers, etc in whatever platforms they choose to use to look you up, that’s the ultimate sign of risk.