As online dating continues to evolve in the direction of enhanced personality matching systems, including visual profile bulders and DNA tests, let us not forget the question, What Does Your Credit-Card Company Know About You?
Takeaway quote: “If you show us what you buy, we can tell you who you are, maybe even better than you know yourself.†Think of the implications of adding credit card data to your dating profile.
Martin could often see precisely what cardholders were purchasing, and he discovered that the brands we buy are the windows into our souls — or at least into our willingness to make good on our debts. His data indicated, for instance, that people who bought cheap, generic automotive oil were much more likely to miss a credit-card payment than someone who got the expensive, name-brand stuff. People who bought carbon-monoxide monitors for their homes or those little felt pads that stop chair legs from scratching the floor almost never missed payments. Anyone who purchased a chrome-skull car accessory or a “Mega Thruster Exhaust System” was pretty likely to miss paying his bill eventually…
IDC says that an individual’s “digital shadow†of information created about them such as surveillance photos, health records and credit reports is larger than the digital persona they create about themselves composed of things like blogs, YouTube videos and MySpace profiles. Via WSJ.
Suppose, during a date, you casually say, “The sugar maples in Harvard Yard were so beautiful every fall term.†Here’s what you’re signaling, as translated by Dr. Miller:
“My S.A.T. scores were sufficiently high (roughly 720 out of 800) that I could get admitted, so my I.Q. is above 135, and I had sufficient conscientiousness, emotional stability and intellectual openness to pass my classes. Plus, I can recognize a tree.â€
I’ve heard about using credit card data to assist in the matchmaking process, but the trail went cold a few months ago. Fascinating and perhaps quite useful to larger sites like eHarmony. Let me know if you have seen anything recently on this.
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Can Credit Card Companies Predict Compatibility Better Than Tests?
The answer is NO!
Why?
Terrible lack of precision by distortion between quantized patterns comparison.
Profiling by music preferences, videos/movies/films preferences, color preferences, bookmarks preferences, handwriting analysis, past purchasing patterns from your credit card and more: Terrible lack of precision by distortion!!!
The WHOLE precision is LESS than any person could achieve searching by his/her own!!!
Please see “Color and Personality: Strong’s Interest Inventory and Cattell’s 16PF”
Those indirect methods used to assess personality always ADDS DISTORTION to the measurement.
To avoid distortion you need to use directly a normative personality test.
Regards,
Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
ardenghifer@gmail.com
Fernando, by treating all matching options one-on-one you are missing the larger picture. Its like you’re talking about an engine and I’m talking about the entire car.
The tests you mention are an arrow in the quiver of tools used in matching people. We’re going to be using many different tools to match people in the future. A single 16PF test isn’t perfect, neither is credit card information, or DNA matching or movie matching.
Is credit card data by itself perfect? Probably not, but used in conjunction with other compatibility tests, perhaps.
Not for an eHarmony-type matching per se, but pulling in and displaying Blippy information could be a start.
Good idea Fred. There’a also another company I read about on TechCrunch that is doing the same with your credit card bill.