Project Lighthouse for dummies

[Emilia42]

Would someone please explain to me, in layman's terms, what exactly this Project Lighthouse is? And how it is going to stop discrimination?

[Helen3]

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/resources/hosting-homes/a/a-new-way-were-fighting-discrimination-on-airbnb-...

[Emilia42]

Yes, I have read this. But I'm seeing a long-winded ramble about how profile photos and names will be removed. This has been the case for over a year and a half. Did it take Airbnb this long to release a press statement or is there something new in there? 

I also don't understand how this data is going to help Airbnb when a vast majority of hosts (and guests) don't even meet their guests (and hosts) meaning they have no idea what race they are. 

[Mark116]

@Emilia42  I imagine they are going to correlate ethnicity with rejections/poor reviews and possibly look at whether there is a difference between IB and requests in terms of these things.  I am wary of it, because there are SO many variables that are involved, that using ethnicity to explain a denial or a bad review seems extremely reductive. 

ETA...An example of airbnb's 'technological prowess'...my helpful hint says that there are 29% more people searching now than this time last year??? This has to be wrong, NYC is still closed down, museums aren't even open yet!  It is impossible that there are almost 1/3 more people who want to book a NYC area vacation...which leads me again to question how much airbnb's data can be relied on for the most mundane issues, let alone something as fraught with controversy as racial discrimination. 

[Anonymous]

@Emilia42  "Project Lighthouse" is a dystopian thriller, featuring a socially maladjusted young technocrat whose ultimate Project is a shady new method to harvest millions of people's data for profit by manipulating their emotions.

Oh wait, that one was called "The Social Network."

[Emilia42]

@Anonymous 

Ha, so are you saying I should opt-out?

[Anonymous]

@Emilia42  In my opinion, if you're going to use people as subjects in a research study or experiment, you should compensate them for it. So unless there's an appealing cash or travel credit bonus for opting in, I would opt out by default. 

But I would be fascinated to see how the unnamed third party's "human perception" would identify my race. People often get it wrong, especially if they also think I'm German.

[Sarah977]

A research study asking people to guess someone's race or nationality by their first name or photo seems to be doing exactly what they are claiming to try to combat. Aren't we supposed to be treating everyone the same and not even paying attention to their race or nationality, and not jumping to conclusions based on those things?  When I had a guest named Khalil, it didn't even occur to me to guess or think about his race or nationality or religion. For all I knew, he could be a white person from Argentina whose parents simply liked the sound of that name.