Feeling at home? New app lets US homebuyers see neighbors' politics

[erronis]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/18/oyssey-homebuyers-app-neighborhood-politics

Oyssey startup allows users to access neighborhood political affiliations and other social data

America’s political divide is likely to get even wider thanks to a new real-estate platform that lets potential buyers see the political affiliations of their future neighbors, as well as other social data and local demographics.

Oyssey, a tech startup launching this month in south Florida and New York City, allows buyers access neighborhood political affiliations based on election results and campaign contributions.

“We’re the advantage platform for homebuyers at a time when buyers have never needed an advantage more,” Huw Nierenberg, CEO of Oyssey, said.

The new tech startup designed its platform around the belief that social data, such as age, education, and income demographics is more influential to prospective homebuyers than the layout or physical conditions of a home.

[Clouds Passing]

1. Big Brother at his seedy work

[Dennis Donovan]

2. I feel like this tool could be abused for nefarious reasons.

Especially the "political affiliation" part.

[Mariana]

5. Maybe so, but public records are public.

Everyone can access that information, by definition.

[Dennis Donovan]

6. Very true, but this is a tool that makes gathering information that could be used for the wrong reasons easier

I'm not saying it shouldn't exist. I'm merely pointing out that people with ill intent could utilize this.

On edit: I just visited https://Oyssey.com . I don't see where it would reveal an individual homeowner's political party. You can apply a filter / map layer that shows the political leanings of a neighborhood:



I guess info in this format wouldn't be useful for anyone out looking to fuck with Democrats.

[LeftInTX]

7. So, all you gotta do is know the precinct number. The results are on the internet!

I even make maps from the data myself! I don't pay a penny either. I use our election results. Google sheets. GIS shapes of precincts and Google maps. Walla...all it takes is a bit of know-how.

Political affiliation of neighbors is "public", but is also proprietary. So, it's gonna cost a bit. Generally here, you pay $50/election. It adds up to numerous elections/year. But then you need to synthesize all the data and make it palatable and understandable. User interfaces cost.


Surveys are not public however and I don't believe the Democrats or the GOP will want to sell their data!

There is probably non-partisan marketing research available. It will cost though and it often isn't too reliable.

[DeepWinter]

9. Yep

Next level gerrymandering on steroids.

[Mariana]

11. This information has been used for gerrymandering purposes for ages.

It was already available for anyone who knew where to find it.

[Johnny2X2X]

3. Wow

Seems like a bad idea, but I am not sure I wouldn't use it if I was looking for a new home.

In fact, my neighbors said our Biden sign in 2020 was a factor in them choosing the house next to ours. I do not want to live nextdoor to awful Trumpsters, they don't make good neighbors and are rude. We have a couple vocal trumpsters on the street. One doesn't maintain their yard at all and they are really loud, he has a Q Anon themed personal license plate. Another is a prepper, we live in the city, are on city water, but he drilled a well recently. I aksed, what for? He said, "you can't trust government with your water, this way we have our own supply if they try to start controlling us with water access." Guy spent several grand on a well in the city for no reason other than paranoia.

[OnionPatch]

4. I'm pretty sure I would use it in a heartbeat

I moved into my home two years ago and realized too late that I am completely and totally surrounded by Trumpsters. I live rurally, so I knew there would be a lot of them, and was fine with a mix of political views... but ALL of them? Yikes. I feel like I'm living in the middle of a cult compound. They're also fundamentalist Christians. Sigh. I'm planning to move in the next year or so, and I am determined not to let this happen again.

[Kid Berwyn]

8. Wanna turn your neighbors over to the Gezpacho?

There's an app for that!



The chances of factual truth surviving the onslaught of power are very slim indeed; it is always in danger of being maneuvered out of the world not only for a time but, potentially, forever. Facts and events are infinitely more fragile things than axioms, discoveries, theories — even the most wildly speculative ones — produced by the human mind; they occur in the field of the ever-changing affairs of men, in whose flux there is nothing more permanent than the admittedly relative permanence of the human mind’s structure. Once they are lost, no rational effort will ever bring them back.

Source: https://www.historynet.com/from-blurring-imperfections-to-falsifying-reality-how-stalin-made-the-truth-disappear-through-photoshop/

[ProfessorGAC]

12. Soup?

Gazpacho is s cold, tomato based, vegetable soup from Spain.
I'm not afraid to be turned over to a bowl of soup!

[Kid Berwyn]

13. A malapropism coined by someone I don't admire.

Marjorie Taylor Greene accuses Nancy Pelosi of running 'gazpacho police'

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2022/02/10/marjorie-taylor-greene-gazpacho-police-pelosi-congress-lead-vpx.cnn

[ProfessorGAC]

16. Aha!

I forgot about that.
She's such a dolt!

[erronis]

14. Marjoram Tailor Grune cleverly called the Gestapo the Gazpacho in one her demented spews.

[DeepWinter]

10. If you want to create

even greater divides in our communities, this is a great way to divide and seperate us.

[keep_left]

15. Sounds like the acceleration of a trend that's been ongoing...

...for decades now. Back in 2009, Bill Bishop's book The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded American is Tearing Us Apart got some notice for its thesis that Americans were self-segregating into like-minded neighborhoods. At the time, the phenomenon was not quite so high-tech (I recall Bishop mentioning a pink flamingo lawn ornament that was his clue to buy a house in Austin, TX). But this development isn't all that surprising, especially now that we have to endure another four years of Donald Trump chaos (assuming he lives out his term, which is not a given). I certainly don't want to be surrounded by MAGA chuds, radtrads, preppers, and QAnon nuts, and I would definitely take advantage of such a service if I was planning a move.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-big-sort-bill-bishop/1117740377

[Sympthsical]

17. Some of my neighbors are lunatics on NextDoor already

Do we really need pure gasoline thrown onto that blaze?

There's this famous Elizabeth I quote I've always liked. "I have no desire to make windows into men's souls."

Once people declare themselves the arbiters of conscience, they often find they have no choice but to oppress.

[erronis]

20. Thanks for that quote --- very apt, I believe.

[GoodRaisin]

18. We can see our neighborhood's voter registration on our local website

I looked it up for our steet and it was about half and half Dem vs Thug

Now I know why my next door neighbors who moved here from Montana and home school their children never talk to us.

[Marthe48]

19. There are already sites that tell you stuff like that

and in Ohio, you can access voting records for free.