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Comment by rdl | Hacker News Reader

Sure, they could do with a better privacy policy.

However, what exactly is the sensitive data here? Your first name, your zip code, your car make/model/year, and your profession.

99.99% of people would happily give you that data for a free pen, just for the asking.

Also, while the Leaky guys (being in YC) are likely to actually be better than their privacy policy, what happens when you click over to the actual insurance company and give them your full details (SSN, credit info, vehicle accident history, license info, etc.). I'm more concerned with how AIG will use my data than how a small startup will, and the insurance company is the one collecting vastly more -- and their privacy policy allows them to use it for all sorts of things which are opposed to the user.

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So, I haven't actually tried the service (due to my privacy concerns, as well as just time). I was assuming they would use more information than that (credit info, vehicle accident history, etc) if they were going to do a good job of modeling how car insurers do pricing.

The amount of information you mention is not as troubling (though you missed your email address), but I would still like to know that they will delete that information after they are done with it, not retain it forever while maintaining the right to give it to pretty much anyone they want as long as they are "affiliated" with Leaky.

And yes, a YC startup may be more trustworthy than an insurance company, but on the other hand, the insurance company needs to collect that information, and is much more heavily regulated, while Leaky, as a private company under not much regulation, can do pretty much anything it wants.

I tried it and found that it underestimated my insurance cost by exactly $500 with both Geico and Allstate but interestingly the spread between the two was correct (about $100)

I've noticed some other really oddities (and the pricing is way off for me, unfortunately -- if only I could get a policy for what they're saying!).

For example, if I list my occupation as "Consultant", Leaky says Geico will give me a $150 discount. Bizarre.

Edit: Clarifying that Leaky says Geico will give me a discount, not that Geico actually does.

Auto insurers will definitely give you a discount for certain fields of employment. "Engineer" drops it $100 or so every time I've tried. My business cards sometimes say "Software Engineer", but I dropped out of a math program, so it's pretty bogus.

Haha, yes but... Consultant. I hope somebody in Hartford, CT (or equivalent) at least finds the notion of giving a discount for having a title which is almost entirely devoid of meaning.

Leaky guys -- I'll try to ring Geico and tell them I'm a consultant so I'd like my $150 discount. Will let you know how it goes.

sakai -- We take our accuracy very seriously; email us at sayhi@leaky.com and we'll look into it.

If you're in California (the only state that we officially support), we're within 1% in about 50% of cases and within 3% in about 80% of cases - and we're always getting better. However, there are still occasional outliers that we are always trying to identify and fix.

If you're outside California, well - the prices will be different. However, the magnitude changes (eg for switching cars) will be similar to what you would see in your state.

As for the occupation discounts - those come straight from the insurers' filed documents.

I haven't read your comments (too long, no time) but I think you should fix them. They seem like they might be critiques of a product you haven't even tried.

If you haven't read them, how do you know they are critiques of a product he hasn't tried?

>"a YC startup may be more trustworthy than an insurance company"

This, and that it is probably true, makes me embarrassed for my country and how awful we allow businesses to be to people.

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