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Comment by pdkl95 | Hacker News Reader

The most obvious use is insurance companies looking for excuses to deny claims.

Or maybe parallel construction used to deny/approve loans. E.g. I can't weight the loan approval negatively specifically bc the person is black, but the GPS information suggests they frequent black areas.

But really every use of this information is highly assymetrical. If they're using it to trade stocks, while regular people are using traditional means, it's an advantage we don't have access to. This is basically the virtual castle walls keeping us peasants out in the fields. Modern feudalism.

As blocking fraudulent claims could remove a reason for my premiums to he higher, I can't say I'm against that.

With the caveat, for course, that people are not always where their phone is so this taken on its own would be circumstantial evidence: one would hope decisions are not made directly based on this information.

It’s not in the interest of insurance companies to lower premiums. They only do it if competition is eating them alive. Geico has been raising their margins ever so slightly. I bet they are also the purchasers of ungodly amounts of data for targeting marketing.

Insurance companies #1 goal is to make maximum profits for their shareholders without getting caught with their pants down.

Mine go down fairly regularly. I have even been cut a check for adding cars to my insurance.

Are you changing insurance companies regularly? Why would an insurance company have any reason to reduce your rates unless legally required to? Even if they've been overcharging you for years compared to competitors, if you aren't calling them up and threatening to change insurers, why would they ever give you money back?

Probably the same reason airplanes have frequent flyer miles. If a customer has proven to be low hassle you don't want to lose them

Yes, if it gets to the point where they've already shopped around you're going to be paying a much higher price to retain that customer, than if you simply gave them a reasonably competitive premium or deserved discount. Insurance companies are not like cable, customers are free to switch to one of many options at any time. Acquisition and churn costs are huge problems.

GEICO is a private company. There are no shareholders. GEICO is owned by Birkshire Hathaway which is owned by Warren Buffett.

I am sure your point is still valid with publicly traded insurance companies.

http://investsnips.com/complete-list-of-insurance-companies-...

> GEICO is owned by Birkshire Hathaway which is owned by Warren Buffett.

Berkshire Hathaway is publicly traded. Warren Buffet owns 36.8% of it.[1]

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkshire_Hathaway

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