Software That Predicts a Neighborhood’s Wealth from Space
wired.com
wired.com
I did spend a few min panning around the Hamptons in Google maps and didn't see any helipads. Not saying they don't exist, just not ubiquitous even amount the wealthy.
It would be similar to an owner of a brick store directing me to the expensive or less expensive products, depending on my looks, instead of asking "what price category do you have in mind?"
You can see the expensive products you're not being offered. Online, you don't see the alternatives. So you're less likely to get offended.
But here's the rub. You just don't buy.
In a brick-and-mortar situation (if you can get over the offense), you might say, "Actually, I'm looking for a diamond-encrusted Rolex and have the bank account to prove it--nevermind my ripped Slayer t-shirt." And the store could pivot and sell you that Rolex.
Online (and this is the difference between sales and advertising), you're not looking for what's being offered (say, a Seiko), so you don't click. You don't even enter the store. They didn't lose a customer: they lost a lead because of bad targeting. And remember that advertising is binary: you you want to buy this [Y|N]? Advertisers would love you to answer questions about your price points and interests, but you won't tell them directly (you won't), so they use what you have told them indirectly about yourself to guess.
Online advertising does care about fairness or "segmentation" (read: discrimination). They don't care that you didn't get shown the "expensive products" (that you probably wouldn't buy anyway), and if you happened to have been a potential customer, losing you as a specific lead is just noise if the targeting is 95% right otherwise. Law of large numbers: who cares about you?
Now, I want to tweak my targeting, and if it turns out guys in ripped Slayer t-shirts are great candidates for sales of my diamond-encrusted Rolexes, then I update my targeting, and everyone is happy. (Except for the guy who really wants to be offered a Rolex because it would make him feel good... even though he'd never actually buy one.)
Different types of objects and shapes seem to be highly correlated with different income levels. For example, lower income areas tend to have baseball diamonds, parking lots, and large similarly shaped buildings (such as housing projects). In middle income areas we see more single family homes and apartment buildings. Higher income areas tend to have greener spaces, tall shiny buildings, and single family homes with lush backyards.
I live within 2 miles of a baseball diamond. What do you think of me now?
Assuming those with the ability to move their wealth overseas would do so, the people most affected by substantially raising taxes would be those without enough wealth to move it... those outside the top 1%, 0.1%.. whatever super-rich people the policy aims to target.
Although it isn't ideal that the wealthy can 'shop around' for the most tax-friendly nations, it certainly happens, and Switzerland is a fine example of that capital flight in effect.
Up Next: How to use fMRI images of fish brains to determine sentience.