WRITTEN ON December 10th, 2008 BY Ruth Kennedy AND STORED IN Data nitwittery, Design: user-oriented, Foundation of Trust, Identity, What do we want?

I was pleased to hear that in a certain northern council the computer may be saying ‘no’ a little less often. [xxxxxxx] Borough Council has cancelled its subscription to Experian’s Mosaic customer segmentation system. At first they had been impressed by the promise of the

Mosaic suite of products [which] forms a global network of segmentation tools that classify a billion people worldwide…. It classifies all 24 million UK households into 11 groups, 61 types and 243 segments, and is updated each year. The result is a classification that paints a rich picture of UK consumers in terms of socio-demographics, lifestyles, culture and behaviour, providing the most accurate and comprehensive view of UK consumers at the start of the 21st century.

This database segments us according to our postcodes, defining everything from our shopping preferences, voting patterns and age range, to family structure and values. Clever [xxxxx] council, however, realised that the segmentation and predictions were accurate at best 70% of the time. On the 30% it could be really, really wrong. Decisions made on the basis of this information could be deeply prejudicial to the wellbeing and best interests of some parts of the community.

Perhaps the nail in the coffin was when the official I met used the system to prepare himself for his first meeting with his new girlfriend’s parents. Mosaic told him the in-laws were top-segment A01s:

Global connections – very affluent, cosmopolitan sophisticates in extremely expensive housing.

He expected posh, unfriendly, and decided to dress up smart. He was taken aback when he found out her parents were ‘completely normal and really nice’.