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How Nest and FitBit Might Spy On You For Cash
Nerval's Lobster writes: "Forbes offers up a comforting little story about how Nest and FitBit are planning on turning user data in a multi-billion-dollar business. 'Smart-thermostat maker Nest Labs (which is being acquired by Google for $3.2 billion) has quietly built a side business managing the energy consumption of a slice of its customers on behalf of electric companies,' reads the article. 'In wearables, health tracker Fitbit is selling companies the tracking bracelets and analytics services to better manage their health care budgets, and its rival Jawbone may be preparing to do the same.' As many a wit has said over the years: If you're not paying, you're the product. But if Forbes is right, wearable-electronics companies may have discovered a sweeter deal: paying customers on one side, and companies paying for those customers' data on the other. Will most consumers actually care, though?"
Who are you?
You know whats creepy? People trying to tell me that other creepy people aren't really creepy because other creepy people really are creepy.
It's creepy all the way down.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Good question seeing how there are image management companies that will do precisely what this person has done on behalf of companies with image problems such as Google.
Will they care? It all depends on the data being shared is in aggregate. I don't care if people know that the average person in my city walks a thousand steps a day, and that still has a lot of value for health care companies, and I'm happy to contribute to that. I *DO* care if they know the details about me *individually*. There is a big difference.
Just because I can hook a shark from a boat, I do no offer to wrestle it in the water.
Two companies whose products I will never, ever buy.
will most customers care? no. they're, like, customers, man.
You start with the ones who don't care, give them discounts on their insurance premiums or electric bill or whatever. Over the course of a few years, you futz with the prices until it's less of a 'discount' and more 'the only way to approach the price you used to get'.
At that point, the ones who do care can either suck it up and wear whatever herd-management-solution you feel like telling them to, or they can pay (probably increasingly steeply) to maintain their precious little objections.
Remember folks - first hit of the crack pipe's free . . .
Is there ever a reason to actually register one of these products with your real name and info? Unless it's my bank, DL, or passport, I see no point in giving any of these companies real info.
Hah!
And then the post, as mysteriously as it arrived, vanished. Astroturfing expedition aborted? Its certainly much harder to imagine dirty pool is not involved now.
Now its in the trash.
Pen & paper don't spy on me anymore when I record my workouts & food.
The pencils though... Haven't figured out how to stop them yet...
Who are you?
Who ARE you?
Hah!
And then the post, as mysteriously as it arrived, vanished. Astroturfing expedition aborted? Its certainly much harder to imagine dirty pool is not involved now.
Whoah there partner.
Turn up the tinfoil and turn down your threshold. It was modded down.
Isn't it obvious at this point that everyone who can spy on you, will? There is no legal regulation, or simple pragmatic or moral restraint.
Remember Obama saying about the NSA, 'maybe just because we can gather some data doesn't mean we should' (paraphrased). It doesn't seem like others are even thinking about it, except Mozilla.
The trouble with these things is that they want to "phone home" too much. For energy conservation, Nest talks to a Nest, Inc. server and tells it too much. The info it needs (outside temp, power grid load status) is freely available from read-only web sites. (Given a ZIP code, the National Weather Service site will return info in XML.) But no, it has to talk to the "cloud" and give out personal information. That's totally unnecessary.
Oh, woops, thanks, my bad. I thought my threshold was already at the minimum.
Who are you?
Who ARE you?
What do you WANT?
How did you get in my HOUSE?!
Yes, because it can help others, you selfish bastard.
People always complain companies are greedy, but they should take a look at individuals who want a piece of the action for EVERYTHING.
What is wrong with you? Seriously? Why is everyone so greedy that a company cannot accidentally or otherwise make one cent off data you willingly contribute for the greater good?
Could you have sold that data anyway? No? Then what the hell man?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I'm already seeing ads for managers offering to sell me this information.
I'm not sure you realize that it's already being marketed, not "will be" marketed.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
On another note, I want something that attaches to a barbell and tracks the speed of the bar and can automatically count my reps by interfacing to a strength tracker app on my phone. I know there is someone on this site that can do that.
Sounds like a good application for a Smart Watch, assuming it has accelerometers, heart rate monitor, etc. I know some folks don't like to train with a watch on, but if you did it could count reps tell you when to slow down, speed up, etc.
Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
I'm the NSA, we have always been in your house... and can you please change to 2 percent milk? Agent Jenkins is getting fat and starting to stick out from behind the TV.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
The article is very misleading. Nest is working with some power companies which offer their customers financial incentives to allow the power company to dial back their AC units during high load times. Pepco in DC offers the same service but you have to pay for their thermostat. This isn't selling user information this is letting the power companies access their customers' thermostats if and only if that customer allows it. Nothing in the article says anything else is happening than this but states it in a very deceptive way. If the article actually had some evidence of something more nefarious it would be fine but as it is just doesn't stand up.
This is a link to the Nest program: https://nest.com/energy-partne...
Would you like your food data shared with your insurance company? How about your weight? Your BMI went above 22 this month. Not good, lower it or else. Your running? You didn't meet your jogging goals for the week. That's it, we're raising your health care premiums. That's a lot of beer you're drinking, and you put a lot of miles on your car, so it looks like we'll have to cancel your auto policy because statistically you're likely a drunk driver.
If you say "OK, share my data", it can go a lot of places you may not intend.
John
Many Interneted Thingies work fine on your own cloud. You can find alternatives that don't feed the big Googly database, but you have to shop carefully. Fitbit and Nest don't give you the option; but some of the home automation systems like Vera need no clouds at all.
John
What worries me is that the movement sensor in Nest knows when you are at home. It reports this information to the cloud after which Google sells this Big Data to 3rd parties. Now how long will it take that criminal 3rd parties take such a Big Data feed from Google to plan burglaries? Did anybody think of that? Or should we just trust the ethical sense of your Big Data owner of choice?
I'm not sure that those arguing the public doesn't care really have it right. There is an apathy, no doubt, but it may just as well stem from a sense of powerlessness, as from one of detachment. "You can't fight the Man", is an ingrained ethos of our times. If it does no good to demonstrate you care, you just move on; it's not really acceptance, it's jaded fatalism.
Everyone with a Nest is probably already aware of their Energy Partners https://nest.com/ca/energy-par... program.
Instead of having your utility company cut your power in the summer when its hot out like they do some places, Nest users' thermostats pre-cool their homes in the morning to reduce energy use during peak hours as determined by the power company. This is a win-win you sign up for, not a spying act.
If you don't want Nest to know about your energy usage, just disable its wifi connection. It still works fine without it.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
No matter how cute the 'Flo' ads are, here is what drove me to never consider them: http://mattfisher.tumblr.com/p... I do understand what you said about insurance but I think the reality of what happens behind the curtains is more revealing... and disturbing.