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Marketers Hunger For Data From Wearables (readwrite.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the case-clothed dept.

An anonymous reader writes:Marketers would love to access information about your daily routines and your precise location, both data sets that would be trivially easy to extract from wearable devices. Those were the two most-requested items in a new survey of marketers, according to a new article at ReadWrite.com. "In the future the data procured from smartwatches might be much more valuable than what is currently available from laptop and mobile users," reports David Curry, raising the possibility that stores might someday use your past Google searches to alert you when they're selling a cheaper product.

16 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. That assumes. . . by Salgak1 · · Score: 3, Informative

    . . .that you don't, for example. . . . forbid permissions for geolocation services. . .

    I rather suspect that there will be a market for metadata evasion products, just like there are adware blockers now. . .

    1. Re:That assumes. . . by plover · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What I don't get is that most 'wearables' don't have location sensors. A Fitbit or Vivofit may have accelerometers, but they have no GPS and no inertial guidance system. The Apple Watch gets its location data from its paired iPhone, which is already in frequent contact with a bunch of marketing companies; this is true regardless of the existence of a paired Apple Watch.

      I assume these people are thinking there's some way to monetize heart-rate and/or motion data, but the attached article doesn't claim what that scheme might be. Maybe having an accelerated heartbeat in the presence of an iBeacon near a car dealer's display will tell the marketers which cars are perceived as most exciting, but any auto dealer or car salesman can tell that without needing a pulse check!

      --
      John
    2. Re: That assumes. . . by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 4, Informative

      Don't forget, it was Bush and his cronies that passed the Patriot act.

      I'm not a supporter of Bush or Obama, but...

      I'm inclined to be a little more pissed at Obama. Bush signed the original Patriot Act into law a little less than 7 weeks after 9-11. At that point in time, probably more than half of Americans would have been fine if it decreed all children will start military training at age 5. Damn few who voted even knew what all was in it. There were only 66 in the House who voted against it and only one in the Senate. And virtually all of the "leaders" of the democrat party voted for it. The dems had control of both houses for most (if not all) of the renewals of it under Bush. We already had somewhat of an idea of it's issues by then, yet it was still renewed by a democrat controlled congress.

      Obama very much knew how bad it was. He told us during his campaign in 2008. Yet continued to renew it. Even after the Snowden leaks in 2013, the USA Freedom Act was passed in 2015, which renewed damn near the entire Patriot Act until 2019. The only real difference in that was that the phone companies kept the phone records rather than the NSA.

      When it comes to the Patriot Act, you can count on most lawmakers in both parties to vote the same way. The only way they'll vote against it is if they think it might cost them their seat in congress.

    3. Re:That assumes. . . by kheldan · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Here's a couple points for you to consider, friend:
      1. You're assuming that 'forbidding permissions' for anything actually works, or can't be worked around somehow.
      2. You're forgetting that the average person either has been brainwashed to not care about their privacy, or doesn't understand that their privacy is being violated in so many ways every single day, or they don't know how to restrict permissions for their very personal data (assuming, again, that even works at all).

      So long as all these sorts of devices work with 'The Cloud', you'll never be 100% sure that your very personal data isn't being copied, leaked, or otherwise compromised. The only way that can happen, is if you use devices that don't connect to 'The Cloud' at all, and that you never, ever enter or upload data from such devices to the Internet, ever. Always assume that either by accident or by design, your personal data is getting into the hands of people and organizations that you don't want to have it.

      --
      Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
  2. Ain't gonna happen by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 2

    You would have to pay me to wear any sort of smart device without a serious medical reason. And even then, it won't help them because of the confidentiality of medical data. Suck it up, marketers. This is not the market you're looking for.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    1. Re:Ain't gonna happen by inode_buddha · · Score: 2

      Ya, wouldn't that make the marketing companies subject to the HIPAA laws? All of a sudden maybe this doesn't look like such a great opportunity to them, if they can be sued into oblivion.

      --
      C|N>K
    2. Re:Ain't gonna happen by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 2

      Smart people will figure that the price has been padded by far more than $250, and negotiate based on that, not some phony discount.

      I haven't noticed anyone using a fitbit or an apple watch or whatever - and you can be sure if they used them, they'd be letting the world know about it. Bragging rights ... same as nobody I know is demanding internet fridges or toasters or air conditioners or fridges. Even the ones with smart TVs just watch whatever's on cable or satellite. Samrtphones and tablets offer enough to occupy those who feel they need more internet content.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  3. Consumers don't hunger for wearables. by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Google Glass, Apple Watch. The only successful wearable is the FitBit. However for the FitBit they buyers of it already fit a demographic so they wouldn't learn much more from that particular data.

    Perhaps they need to focus on how to much such devices useful to the common person, before marketers can find ways to exploit it.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  4. To what end? by H3lldr0p · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Seriously, marketing is already drowning in data. What good and useful information is this going to provide that the data they already have couldn't? What is the end product going to be and how will it be useful to anyone?

    1. Re:To what end? by Kierthos · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You're operating under the assumption that they've thought that far ahead.

      Remember when Radio Shack would ask for your phone number/email/whatever when you bought batteries? Or, well, anything, really. It was to collect data for marketing purposes, so they could send you advertisements and coupons and yes, turn around and sell that information to other companies.

      But no one at Radio Shack really thought ahead to see that it was an asinine plan. Some marketing guy came up with the idea, and convinced a VP of the company that it the best idea ever, and blammo, you're being asked to fill out what amount to a marketing questionnaire when you make a purchase.

      Side note: I never got mad at the Radio Shack employees for this. They're only following corporate dictates. I worked in retail for over a decade. You would be surprised how often some silly-ass policy came down from the corporate offices because someone thought it was the best idea ever.

      Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that they've gotten the idea that they want to collect this data, but it doesn't necessarily follow that they know what to do with this data. Other than make money off of it. But like the underpants gnomes, they haven't worked out the intermediate steps yet.

      --
      Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
    2. Re:To what end? by Gilgaron · · Score: 2

      I think you're onto it there... there's no way this marketing data is as valuable as companies who are buying it think it is... but if I'm only watching streaming TV and listening to streaming radio without commercials on either, don't subscribe to magazines, and have adblockers on my browsers I suppose I can see why they think this data is their best bet. I guess even coupons are kind of like that... if I buy the cheapest yogurt and then buy fancier yogurt because it is on sale and has a coupon, but switch back to the cheap stuff next time, I don't suppose they win much, either.

    3. Re:To what end? by MitchDev · · Score: 2

      We had a simple solution, don't shop at Radio Shack.

      In the even we needed something we couldn't fins elsewhere, we'd lie through our teeth.

      I notice a LOT fewer Radio Shack stores anymore. Wonder what the correlation might be?

    4. Re:To what end? by H3lldr0p · · Score: 2

      The "end product" is a statistical model of each person accurate enough to manipulate you to spend more money...

      Let's say that's the idea. To get someone to spend more based on questionable mathematics and bad assumptions. Let's further say that it is successful. I've watched the stock market long enough to know that once someone has a new way to strip mine pennies, everyone else jumps on it so they're not left answering their bosses as to why they didn't make an extra dollar this quarter.

      So now every marketing group has the same, ultimate "power of persuasion" which means either I'm broke and have no more money to spend or they're all out of a job because there's no more marketing to do thanks to their new wonder-product. There's also the likely outcome that like certain forms of propaganda, we become inured to its influence and they have to start all over again with another set a research and questionable assumptions and so on and so forth.

      Again, it seems to me that no-one has thought this all the way through.

  5. A better question to ask would be... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ... what data do the people who own and wear the devices want to give to the marketers, and how much are the marketers willing to pay for it?

    1. Re:A better question to ask would be... by pr0fessor · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The real question is how do they continue to make money this way? If I need a new pair of jeans or shoes I go somewhere try on a few pairs and buy the ones I like the best. I go to the store look at what they have and buy groceries. I have never seen and ad and thought I have to have one of those unless it was a brand new never before product and I'm not talking about just the next revision of a smart phone or new model car those are not new products.

  6. Anything like current tracking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    stores might someday use your past Google searches to alert you when they're selling a cheaper product

    Or, if it is anything like the current tracking, they'll alert me about the exact same item I just bought, frequently from the same store that I bought it from. I can't wait for this brave new advertising world.