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As the app mentioned is free, I would deduce that they try to turn the data about their users cycle into a monetary value. Is there research how certain period

As the app mentioned is free, I would deduce that they try to turn the data about their users cycle into a monetary value. Is there research how certain periods of the cycle would affect women shopping behaviour (or behaviour in general)? I am asking this to understand how much value is in such information. Perhaps there are other aspects I am overlooking?

TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
> Is there research how certain periods of the cycle would affect women shopping behaviour (or behaviour in general)? I am asking this to understand how much value is in such information. If someone stops having periods, that might be a sign they're pregnant. That's valuable to retailers (famously, some can spot when you're pregnant before even you know, by tracking purchases). Also, mood swings and specific cravings might happen, and that would affect consumption? (Don't have personal experience here.)
- endymi0n 11y ago
  Absolutely, we're talking about a really lucrative segment here... > To marketers, the average Joe’s online data is worth around 10 cents. However, a pregnant woman’s data is worth fifteen times that: $1.50. http://www.salon.com/2014/04/28/one_womans_attempt_to_hide_her_pregnancy_from_big_data/ http://www.salon.com/2014/04/28/one_womans_attempt_to_hide_h...
  - WildUtah 11y ago
    "pregnant woman’s data is worth fifteen times" The reason for this is obvious if you've ever budgeted for a new baby in the house.
    - arjunnarayan 11y ago
      It's not just the cost of buying baby stuff. It's that people's lives fall into regular patterns. Usually, there are few opportunities to change someone's pattern. Pregnancy is one of the biggest such opportunities. For example, say someone goes to QFC for their weekly groceries - it's hard to convince them to go in the opposite direction to Safeway, even if it's about the same distance. Pregnancy is one of those few times when people's shopping patterns are up for grabs. If you can slip in and get them to go to Target for a few critical baby-things, maybe you can get them going to Target for everything else for the next ten years.
personjerry 11y ago
That makes sense. Why is it that this is creepier to me than the usual data tracking stuff?
eli 11y ago
I think they just show normal network ads.
onion2k 11y ago
As the app mentioned is free, I would deduce that they try to turn the data about their users cycle into a monetary value. There are good reasons why people might want to make this sort of app beyond selling the data. There's a huge potential for health care service providers - if women don't need prescription drugs or appointments to see their doctor, and any other medical issues are resolved more easily because there isn't the problem of the drugs interacting with the pill, then that represents a vast saving in the cost of supplying services.
- pavornyoh 11y ago
  if women don't need prescription drugs or appointments to see their doctor, and any other medical issues are resolved more easily because there isn't the problem of the drugs interacting with the pill, then that represents a vast saving in the cost of supplying services. This exactly. The app. I use is called the Pink Pad and free. I have been using it since 2011. Since then, I have stop taking the pill. There are no ads just very straight forward. It tells you fertile days and other things. Since that time, it has been off on certain days as that is my fault for not getting to properly note things. But it has been very spot on.
  - zevyoura 11y ago
    Relying on that app may not be the best idea; from the article: >While the apps also can be used to track ovulation, signaling the days the user is more or less likely to become pregnant, most period tracker apps explicitly warn users not to rely on them to prevent pregnancy. The ovulation tracker and fertility prediction can be helpful for a woman trying to conceive, but it can give a false sense of security to a woman who relies on the app as a form of birth control. >That’s because even the most vigilant ovulation tracking methods have shockingly high failure rates, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, with up to one in four women becoming pregnant over the course of a year with typical use. >“Apps are a tool; they’re not actually a birth control method,” said Hannah Ransom of San Diego, a certified fertility awareness educator.
- eveningcoffee 11y ago
blub 11y ago
I looked at their (Clue's) privacy policy a while ago: basically you have the option of not creating an account, and they claim that everything is stored locally and not sent anywhere in that case. I think it's a German/EU company, so they should have some restrictions on what they do with this data. Maybe someone can take a closer look...
- kaylarose 11y ago
  I can't say for the privacy policy, but I used Clue for over a year without an account. Since I forgot to do a final export of the data before resetting my phone (I know, I know...), I subsequently lost all the locally stored data for the past few months. When I contacted Clue, they said their was no way to retrieve it. So my guess is that they are telling the truth re: nothing sent to the cloud unless you explicitly choose to.
briandear 11y ago
It's a safety tool. Imagine the app posting to Facebook in order to warn people of their interactions during this serious time.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
  Do you, uh, know anything about women.
netcan 11y ago
I think there's a touch of "my adversary is a super-villain" paranoia to the anti-tracking sentiments. I mean Facebook or Amazon get talked about occasionally for being able to predict pregnancies or breakups an monetizing that. But, IMO, it's much overblown. Predctive analytics are not at that point, if they ever will be. The vast majority of ad targeting is a lot simpler than that. It's either common sense understandable (advertise nanny services to people who read parenting magazines) or trial and error. Trial and error is still the more powerful of the two. FB & Google have the option to scan your site, pick audiences and advertising strategies and run everything on autopilot. it doesn't work very well. If your strategy is to collect toilet break statistics, user listening habits or some other bit of "data" for a large number of free users than monetize it somehow, good luck.

TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago

> Is there research how certain periods of the cycle would affect women shopping behaviour (or behaviour in general)? I am asking this to understand how much value is in such information. If someone stops having periods, that might be a sign they're pregnant. That's valuable to retailers (famously, some can spot when you're pregnant before even you know, by tracking purchases). Also, mood swings and specific cravings might happen, and that would affect consumption? (Don't have personal experience here.)

endymi0n 11y ago
Absolutely, we're talking about a really lucrative segment here... > To marketers, the average Joe’s online data is worth around 10 cents. However, a pregnant woman’s data is worth fifteen times that: $1.50. http://www.salon.com/2014/04/28/one_womans_attempt_to_hide_her_pregnancy_from_big_data/ http://www.salon.com/2014/04/28/one_womans_attempt_to_hide_h...
- WildUtah 11y ago
  "pregnant woman’s data is worth fifteen times" The reason for this is obvious if you've ever budgeted for a new baby in the house.
  - arjunnarayan 11y ago
    It's not just the cost of buying baby stuff. It's that people's lives fall into regular patterns. Usually, there are few opportunities to change someone's pattern. Pregnancy is one of the biggest such opportunities. For example, say someone goes to QFC for their weekly groceries - it's hard to convince them to go in the opposite direction to Safeway, even if it's about the same distance. Pregnancy is one of those few times when people's shopping patterns are up for grabs. If you can slip in and get them to go to Target for a few critical baby-things, maybe you can get them going to Target for everything else for the next ten years.

personjerry 11y ago

That makes sense. Why is it that this is creepier to me than the usual data tracking stuff?

eli 11y ago

I think they just show normal network ads.

onion2k 11y ago

As the app mentioned is free, I would deduce that they try to turn the data about their users cycle into a monetary value. There are good reasons why people might want to make this sort of app beyond selling the data. There's a huge potential for health care service providers - if women don't need prescription drugs or appointments to see their doctor, and any other medical issues are resolved more easily because there isn't the problem of the drugs interacting with the pill, then that represents a vast saving in the cost of supplying services.

pavornyoh 11y ago
if women don't need prescription drugs or appointments to see their doctor, and any other medical issues are resolved more easily because there isn't the problem of the drugs interacting with the pill, then that represents a vast saving in the cost of supplying services. This exactly. The app. I use is called the Pink Pad and free. I have been using it since 2011. Since then, I have stop taking the pill. There are no ads just very straight forward. It tells you fertile days and other things. Since that time, it has been off on certain days as that is my fault for not getting to properly note things. But it has been very spot on.
- zevyoura 11y ago
  Relying on that app may not be the best idea; from the article: >While the apps also can be used to track ovulation, signaling the days the user is more or less likely to become pregnant, most period tracker apps explicitly warn users not to rely on them to prevent pregnancy. The ovulation tracker and fertility prediction can be helpful for a woman trying to conceive, but it can give a false sense of security to a woman who relies on the app as a form of birth control. >That’s because even the most vigilant ovulation tracking methods have shockingly high failure rates, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, with up to one in four women becoming pregnant over the course of a year with typical use. >“Apps are a tool; they’re not actually a birth control method,” said Hannah Ransom of San Diego, a certified fertility awareness educator.
eveningcoffee 11y ago

blub 11y ago

I looked at their (Clue's) privacy policy a while ago: basically you have the option of not creating an account, and they claim that everything is stored locally and not sent anywhere in that case. I think it's a German/EU company, so they should have some restrictions on what they do with this data. Maybe someone can take a closer look...

kaylarose 11y ago
I can't say for the privacy policy, but I used Clue for over a year without an account. Since I forgot to do a final export of the data before resetting my phone (I know, I know...), I subsequently lost all the locally stored data for the past few months. When I contacted Clue, they said their was no way to retrieve it. So my guess is that they are telling the truth re: nothing sent to the cloud unless you explicitly choose to.

briandear 11y ago

It's a safety tool. Imagine the app posting to Facebook in order to warn people of their interactions during this serious time.

GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
Do you, uh, know anything about women.

netcan 11y ago

I think there's a touch of "my adversary is a super-villain" paranoia to the anti-tracking sentiments. I mean Facebook or Amazon get talked about occasionally for being able to predict pregnancies or breakups an monetizing that. But, IMO, it's much overblown. Predctive analytics are not at that point, if they ever will be. The vast majority of ad targeting is a lot simpler than that. It's either common sense understandable (advertise nanny services to people who read parenting magazines) or trial and error. Trial and error is still the more powerful of the two. FB & Google have the option to scan your site, pick audiences and advertising strategies and run everything on autopilot. it doesn't work very well. If your strategy is to collect toilet break statistics, user listening habits or some other bit of "data" for a large number of free users than monetize it somehow, good luck.