Proxy Indicators: Beware of Spurious Claims

I recently stumbled across a research paper, Using Deep Learning and Google Street View to Estimate the Demograp..., which piqued my interest in derivative uses of data, an ongoing research interest of mine. A variety of deep learning techniques were used to draw conclusions about relationships of car ownership, political affiliation and demographics. For those headline skimmers, you may be led to believe that researchers have just uncovered a vastly cheaper and more timely approach to perform the national census and make predictive claims about the population. The researchers' contention that official statistics are expensive and lagging is spot on. The principal US unemployment survey is performed in person or via telephone.