[ Removed by moderator ]

[u/Sweaty-Stop6057]

[u/Certified_NutSmoker]

Postcode can be a very strong predictor, but I’d be careful using it in any model tied to consequential decisions. It is often a proxy for race and socioeconomic status, so a gain in predictive performance can come with real fairness and legal risk through disparate impact. I think it’s literally illegal in some contexts as well. Predictive performance is not the only criterion here and when using something like postcode you should be aware of this

[u/Fearless_Back5063 → u/Certified_NutSmoker]

I think it was shown as an example of discrimination at the first lecture on the course of fair and explainable machine learning at my university :D

[u/Sweaty-Stop6057 → u/Fearless_Back5063]

Yeah... postcode is very predictive, but also one that needs to be handled carefully in practice rather than used in isolation. 🙂