

Use Encryption Because You’re Boring - hawkharris
http://codyromano.com/use-encryption-because-youre-boring/

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dalke
The essay encourages us to use encrypted services in order to prevent traffic
analysis. I have no issue with the overall goal. I have only a nit to pick,
with the quote "It takes the teen’s Web history into account when his family
applies for coverage."

That specific scenario doesn't make economic sense. There's too much
variability for the insurance company to make a good decision. Consider that a
health teacher may assign students to research different common ailments, as
part of a lesson to understand the available tools; a science teacher may
bring up the story of H. pylori as a digestive disorder which was
misunderstood for a very long time, and the student wants to learn more; the
teenager may be helping a stressed out friend; the teenager might be
interested in going into medicine and researches common diseases; and so on.

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hawkharris
Thanks for reading and offering feedback. I agree that web searches alone are
variable, but some health care companies consider the data in aggregate, along
with other factors, to develop profiles of patients. Here's one example of an
insurance company using online browsing data to set insurance rates and
policies: [http://www.cnbc.com/id/101586404](http://www.cnbc.com/id/101586404)

~~~
dalke
That article says nothing about "using online browsing data to set insurance
rates and policies."

To start with, every insurance company develops a statistical model of each
and every customer. Non-smokers get lower rates than smokers. Life insurance
depends on age. That's how insurance companies must work.

That article says that some insurance companies use more than just risk
factors in order to determine the price, but also information like market
power (or lack thereof) for your market segment. For example, poor or
immigrant people may not have the time or knowledge to look for alternative
companies, so an insurance company may offer an initially low price to get
lock-in, then raise it after a few years to be above the price needed for
actuarial reasons.

It doesn't talk about online browsing data, and it doesn't talk about
personalized factors other than the expected aggregate demographic modeling.

