to everybody worrying about "the data", what do you actually believe google could possibly learn about you through your fitness data?
as far as i can tell, the most valuable piece of data they could harvest through a fitbit acquisition is whether or not you're the type of person who uses a fitness tracker (and they already know whether or not you installed the fitbit app through the play store). It seems insane to me that they would pay 2.1B to feed your heart rate or step count into their ad-targeting algorithms - it's just not that valuable.
is this not how it should work, at least in europe according to the new data laws. recently nello.io was sold and this is the email i got. we have good news, which we would like to share with you immediately! The journey of nello continues - we will join forces with the team of SCLAK. The new owner SCLAK will be the Italian supplier of smart home products. This fits perfectly to nello. In order for you to be able to…
Perfect, except no refund offered!
The company would have had to carry a reserve to refund everyone who ever bought the app (which is equal to their total revenue). Or the buying company would have cover that. Either way it'd be an impossible liability.
Apple Maps is so bad that people go out of their way to install another map app even though the OS does not let them properly use the other app as a default. Nokia Maps pre-existed Waze and wouldn't have benefited from purchasing it.
Fortunately, we have data. Not anecdotes. I’m citing Wikipedia for conciseness. You can look up the article’s references for citations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Maps
> we have data.
Where is the data that large numbers of people aren't installing Google Maps on iOS despite iOS crippling third party maps apps? Not in your link.
to everybody worrying about "the data", what do you actually believe google could possibly learn about you through your fitness data? as far as i can tell, the most valuable piece of data they could harvest through a fitbit acquisition is whether or not you're the type of person who uses a fitness tracker (and they already know whether or not you installed the fitbit app through the play store). It seems insane to me…
If I were to guess: got $100bn cash, not many obvious opportunities to spend on, why not add a device to portfolio? OS + device seems to be Google corporate strategy.
Fitbit has disastrous financials. It's been losing money for four straight quarters and they are losing grip on the market. If this was viewed as non-tech company they would have gone to Chapter 11 already. Tech bubble is real.
to everybody worrying about "the data", what do you actually believe google could possibly learn about you through your fitness data? as far as i can tell, the most valuable piece of data they could harvest through a fitbit acquisition is whether or not you're the type of person who uses a fitness tracker (and they already know whether or not you installed the fitbit app through the play store). It seems insane to me…
The data is deep but not wide. I don't think Fitbit data has much value alone, or even joined to some broader user profile.
I see more value in using the FitBit customer base as a market for other wearables. FitBit has developed some trust regarding collecting health data, which is hard.
to everybody worrying about "the data", what do you actually believe google could possibly learn about you through your fitness data? as far as i can tell, the most valuable piece of data they could harvest through a fitbit acquisition is whether or not you're the type of person who uses a fitness tracker (and they already know whether or not you installed the fitbit app through the play store). It seems insane to me…
Maybe they won't do this...But, consider how big A/B testing is nowadays. Imagine if you could A/B test, but not just see which maximizes engagement, but also see which causes more fear, excitement, etc.
Who knows if that can be monetized, but it seems that there are actually some ways heart beat can be used for other products.
to everybody worrying about "the data", what do you actually believe google could possibly learn about you through your fitness data? as far as i can tell, the most valuable piece of data they could harvest through a fitbit acquisition is whether or not you're the type of person who uses a fitness tracker (and they already know whether or not you installed the fitbit app through the play store). It seems insane to me…
I would LOVE to hear what you think they collect. I’m sure it’s absolutely nothing, right?
to everybody worrying about "the data", what do you actually believe google could possibly learn about you through your fitness data? as far as i can tell, the most valuable piece of data they could harvest through a fitbit acquisition is whether or not you're the type of person who uses a fitness tracker (and they already know whether or not you installed the fitbit app through the play store). It seems insane to me…
It's incredibly valuable. If I were google, I'd harvest the crap out of the data to make ad-serving pinpointing even more granular than it is now. Not only can they use the data to immediately make their ad selection algo more accurate, but I'd imagine lumping all this new data alongside existing user-profile datasets will reveal new purchasing trends (and therefore advertisement campaign trends) at an exponential rate. They are essentially an ad sales company after all so that behavior shouldn't be unexpected.
I also wouldn't really be surprised if they added hardware code that logs exactly when and where a given fitbit device is within bluetooth range of another fitbit device (or any google device for that matter). Then create a (or improve upon their already existing) network map via triangulation to see where each user goes, how long they interact with specific people, which supermarket isle they walked down when they happened to walk past another fitbit wearer that is known to be part of xyz demographic, etc.
to everybody worrying about "the data", what do you actually believe google could possibly learn about you through your fitness data? as far as i can tell, the most valuable piece of data they could harvest through a fitbit acquisition is whether or not you're the type of person who uses a fitness tracker (and they already know whether or not you installed the fitbit app through the play store). It seems insane to me…
It's incredibly valuable. If I were google, I'd harvest the crap out of the data to make ad-serving pinpointing even more granular than it is now. Not only can they use the data to immediately make their ad selection algo more accurate, but I'd imagine lumping all this new data alongside existing user-profile datasets will reveal new purchasing trends (and therefore advertisement campaign trends) at an exponential ra…
to everybody worrying about "the data", what do you actually believe google could possibly learn about you through your fitness data? as far as i can tell, the most valuable piece of data they could harvest through a fitbit acquisition is whether or not you're the type of person who uses a fitness tracker (and they already know whether or not you installed the fitbit app through the play store). It seems insane to me…
I would LOVE to hear what you think they collect. I’m sure it’s absolutely nothing, right? Fuck off asshole.
We've banned this account, obviously.
Could you please stop creating accounts to break HN's guidelines with? It's in your interests to do so, because we're trying to have a community that stays interesting for everybody. Going down in flames gets boring pretty quickly.