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Our Dental Insurance Sent Us “Free” Internet-Connected Toothbrushes

dlhavema 8y ago
I have the same insurance/tooth brushes. The thing that got me was they sent one of these for my 2 year old. Same thing as for me and my wife... they know how old the kids are ( 2, 5 and 6 ).. you think they'd "think of the children"...
techman9 8y ago
Maybe I missed something in the article, but how do you know the phone app is transmitting data to the insurance company?
- dreta 8y ago
  I don't think you have to be very cynical to assume that's what's going on. It might not be happening now, but once the adoption rate is sufficient there's going to be a small update to the license, and the insurer will know enough to set your rates exactly right.
- lozenge 8y ago
  If the insurance company wasn't getting the data, wouldn't they have chosen a cheaper, simpler model of toothbrush? Edit: this is from the official site: "The Beam Brush tracks usage to encourage better brushing habits amongst our members. Then, we collect that data in the aggregate so that groups receive the best possible rates on insurance premiums. Better brushing leads to better plans and premiums for your group!" Also, the company is pretty upfront. "Floss, toothpaste, and a beam® brush ships with all our plans directly to your doorstep." is on the homepage. You choose the toothbrush color on their website. I'm not sure what caused the second package to send, though.
kchoudhu 8y ago
I'd be more inclined to fall in line with their data collection practices if dental insurance wasn't so utterly useless as an insurance product. It almost always makes sense to save the premium payments up and pay out of pocket for any dental services you need.
- dawhizkid 8y ago
  I would definitely say that about vision, not so much dental. I don't think most people realize how linked dental health is to physical health and wellbeing...plenty of studies on ties of poor dental hygiene and cardiovascular disease. If anything I'd advocate to require health insurance companies to bundle adult dental care instead of it being a separate insurance product.
  - eloff 8y ago
    None of which has any bearing on whether dental insurance is worthwhile vs paying out of pocket.
    - dawhizkid 8y ago
      Are you speaking as a consumer? Dental insurance is really cheap...it's like $300/year. Many employers cover all or most of this cost if you get it through a company. If you pay 100% of your premium and have 2 regular cleanings, it's basically a payment plan. If you require any other services (deep cleaning for example) then it would definitely be cheaper to pay for insurance than OOP.
      - TylerE 8y ago
        I'm guessing you're not in the US? Here, the polices have VERY low lifetime caps. One root canal can wipe it out. Other than that, it's basically prepaying for an annual cleaning.
        dawhizkid 8y ago
        Yes I'm in the US. Lifetime caps are generally for ortho and implants. I've not heard of a lifetime cap on root canals but maybe this varies by insurance company. Again, yes if you only get cleanings then it's a payment plan...from a customer POV why would you not prefer a 0% interest payment plan with added protection in case you need literally any other dental service vs paying OOP for 2 cleanings a year?
gcb0 8y ago
And that is the number one selling feature of OneStar for car manufacturers in the US (where leases are the top way to "sell" cars)
- craftyguy 8y ago
  Free toothbrushes? I'm not sure I understand the point you are trying to make.
  - giarc 8y ago
    I think they are talking about OnStar, the GM product that provides in person concierge service in additional to vehicle maintenance information and crash reporting. The connection to leasing they are trying to make is likely to say, by installing OnStar they can monitor how the user drives the car. However, the math behind leasing and payments etc is known upfront. When you return the car, they don't just say "Well you owe us an extra $10,000 because you accelerate hard."
jstanley 8y ago
Surprised to find an ad at the end of this article. It also uses Google Analytics. What was all that about spying on your users, again?
toddmorey 8y ago
Your toothbrush certainly does not need an app. But what's the game, I wonder, for the dental insurance company? I mean, _why_ do they want your data? Aggregate data on habits? The chance to shape behavior (better habits) of customers through nags, gamification, etc? Eventually rates tied to compliance? Advertising opps?
- YaxelPerez 8y ago
  This seems similar to those telemetrics devices that some car insurers offer. My guess is that they could charge more or less depending on how often you brush your teeth.
- ImaCake 8y ago
  I would imagine the insurance company wants all of things you speculated on. Insurances companies would love to know which statistical bucket you fall into, so they can charge you more or less based on your risk of making a claim.
  - astrodust 8y ago
    "According to our records your purchases of junk food have increased 16.2% since the previous calendar year. Your insurance premiums have been adjusted accordingly." This is some Black Mirror level garbage. If this becomes common place there'll be an explosion of automation devices to "use" your toothbrush a couple of times per day.
    - jacob019 8y ago
      We should be so lucky that our data would be used to encourage healthy living as opposed to to status quo.
      - TrainedMonkey 8y ago
        Except when this would drive negative feedback loops. The following scenario may not be frequent or probable, but it is definitely plausible: 1. A rural area has few healthy eating options. 2. Everyone who cares about this sort of thing and has the means to move away leaves. 3. Healthy stores close because there are not enough customers. 4. Only junk food options remain. Now you've essentially increased societal segregation... This may sound ridiculous, but it is already seriously hard to eat healthy in many areas of the country.
kylec 8y ago
I read this article a few times, but I don’t see any quotes of actual communication from either the dental insurance or the toothbrush company. If the second box contained a letter with the purported message, why not post it? If the author received warnings about being in violation of the “free” deal, why not post them? It’s hard to tell here what has actually been said by the insurance or toothbrush vendor vs inferred by the author.
- mar77i 8y ago
  As the business in these cases usually takes place in a form of lie of omission, that slightly bigger amount of data that is collected than promised, that slight adrenaline kick which free IoT toothbrushes were supposed to give OP that should have shut out all doubt about the situation. And if anything could proof excess data collection or whatever violation of privacy or human reason, it wouldn't be found in the carefully curated communication by any of the companies involved, but the source code that comprises the software running this thing.
  - madeofpalk 8y ago
    I think the point is though, that a major premis of the article was "you must use these brushes and give us your dats OR ELSE", but it was entirely unsubstaniated.
    - mar77i 8y ago
      What's it called when you look for a general wisdom in an everyday situation? ethics? That's all I see myself pointed to in the article. Would we accept "OR ELSE" as a society? Should we? What laws does our government come up with so we can make sure "OR ELSE" doesn't happen past the certain extent it already does? Can we attach a metric for how much "OR ELSE" is too much?
      - madeofpalk 8y ago
        But the article doesnt put forward that the 'OR ELSE' case actually exists. The author just hypothesis it (which is relevant itself!) and goes from there, without providing any sort of hint of evidence.
dingaling 8y ago
This is a great counterpoint to Google's insistence that there doesn't need to be a discrete "Internet access" permission in Android. Their position is that if apps are all well-siloed then it doesn't matter if they chat to the Cloud because they can't leak data to which you have denied them access ( contacts, photos etc ) But that's only true for on-device data; here's an app that's relaying data from a Bluetooth source. Data which the user would prefer it didn't send to the Cloud. But without rooting there's no way to stop it doing so. Please Google, give us the ability to block Internet access.
BLanen 8y ago
This guy doesn't understand the difference between free 'you're the product' products and free-included-with-the-product, which is actually just the cost included with the product you bought, in this case insurance. The language he uses makes it seem as though it's OF COURSE going to be in the first category, even though it's an extra with his insurance. If they included a not-smart electric touthbrush, would he also use 'free' in a suspicious way? No, because there wouldn't be an article because it would just be part of the insurers marketing. Kind of annoyed me.

I have the same insurance/tooth brushes. The thing that got me was they sent one of these for my 2 year old. Same thing as for me and my wife... they know how old the kids are ( 2, 5 and 6 ).. you think they'd "think of the children"...

techman9 8y ago

Maybe I missed something in the article, but how do you know the phone app is transmitting data to the insurance company?

dreta 8y ago
I don't think you have to be very cynical to assume that's what's going on. It might not be happening now, but once the adoption rate is sufficient there's going to be a small update to the license, and the insurer will know enough to set your rates exactly right.
lozenge 8y ago
If the insurance company wasn't getting the data, wouldn't they have chosen a cheaper, simpler model of toothbrush? Edit: this is from the official site: "The Beam Brush tracks usage to encourage better brushing habits amongst our members. Then, we collect that data in the aggregate so that groups receive the best possible rates on insurance premiums. Better brushing leads to better plans and premiums for your group!" Also, the company is pretty upfront. "Floss, toothpaste, and a beam® brush ships with all our plans directly to your doorstep." is on the homepage. You choose the toothbrush color on their website. I'm not sure what caused the second package to send, though.

kchoudhu 8y ago

I'd be more inclined to fall in line with their data collection practices if dental insurance wasn't so utterly useless as an insurance product. It almost always makes sense to save the premium payments up and pay out of pocket for any dental services you need.

dawhizkid 8y ago
I would definitely say that about vision, not so much dental. I don't think most people realize how linked dental health is to physical health and wellbeing...plenty of studies on ties of poor dental hygiene and cardiovascular disease. If anything I'd advocate to require health insurance companies to bundle adult dental care instead of it being a separate insurance product.
- eloff 8y ago
  None of which has any bearing on whether dental insurance is worthwhile vs paying out of pocket.
  - dawhizkid 8y ago
    Are you speaking as a consumer? Dental insurance is really cheap...it's like $300/year. Many employers cover all or most of this cost if you get it through a company. If you pay 100% of your premium and have 2 regular cleanings, it's basically a payment plan. If you require any other services (deep cleaning for example) then it would definitely be cheaper to pay for insurance than OOP.
    - TylerE 8y ago
      I'm guessing you're not in the US? Here, the polices have VERY low lifetime caps. One root canal can wipe it out. Other than that, it's basically prepaying for an annual cleaning.
      - dawhizkid 8y ago
        Yes I'm in the US. Lifetime caps are generally for ortho and implants. I've not heard of a lifetime cap on root canals but maybe this varies by insurance company. Again, yes if you only get cleanings then it's a payment plan...from a customer POV why would you not prefer a 0% interest payment plan with added protection in case you need literally any other dental service vs paying OOP for 2 cleanings a year?

gcb0 8y ago

And that is the number one selling feature of OneStar for car manufacturers in the US (where leases are the top way to "sell" cars)

craftyguy 8y ago
Free toothbrushes? I'm not sure I understand the point you are trying to make.
- giarc 8y ago
  I think they are talking about OnStar, the GM product that provides in person concierge service in additional to vehicle maintenance information and crash reporting. The connection to leasing they are trying to make is likely to say, by installing OnStar they can monitor how the user drives the car. However, the math behind leasing and payments etc is known upfront. When you return the car, they don't just say "Well you owe us an extra $10,000 because you accelerate hard."

jstanley 8y ago

Surprised to find an ad at the end of this article. It also uses Google Analytics. What was all that about spying on your users, again?

toddmorey 8y ago

Your toothbrush certainly does not need an app. But what's the game, I wonder, for the dental insurance company? I mean, _why_ do they want your data? Aggregate data on habits? The chance to shape behavior (better habits) of customers through nags, gamification, etc? Eventually rates tied to compliance? Advertising opps?

YaxelPerez 8y ago
This seems similar to those telemetrics devices that some car insurers offer. My guess is that they could charge more or less depending on how often you brush your teeth.
ImaCake 8y ago
I would imagine the insurance company wants all of things you speculated on. Insurances companies would love to know which statistical bucket you fall into, so they can charge you more or less based on your risk of making a claim.
- astrodust 8y ago
  "According to our records your purchases of junk food have increased 16.2% since the previous calendar year. Your insurance premiums have been adjusted accordingly." This is some Black Mirror level garbage. If this becomes common place there'll be an explosion of automation devices to "use" your toothbrush a couple of times per day.
  - jacob019 8y ago
    We should be so lucky that our data would be used to encourage healthy living as opposed to to status quo.
    - TrainedMonkey 8y ago
      Except when this would drive negative feedback loops. The following scenario may not be frequent or probable, but it is definitely plausible: 1. A rural area has few healthy eating options. 2. Everyone who cares about this sort of thing and has the means to move away leaves. 3. Healthy stores close because there are not enough customers. 4. Only junk food options remain. Now you've essentially increased societal segregation... This may sound ridiculous, but it is already seriously hard to eat healthy in many areas of the country.

kylec 8y ago

I read this article a few times, but I don’t see any quotes of actual communication from either the dental insurance or the toothbrush company. If the second box contained a letter with the purported message, why not post it? If the author received warnings about being in violation of the “free” deal, why not post them? It’s hard to tell here what has actually been said by the insurance or toothbrush vendor vs inferred by the author.

mar77i 8y ago
As the business in these cases usually takes place in a form of lie of omission, that slightly bigger amount of data that is collected than promised, that slight adrenaline kick which free IoT toothbrushes were supposed to give OP that should have shut out all doubt about the situation. And if anything could proof excess data collection or whatever violation of privacy or human reason, it wouldn't be found in the carefully curated communication by any of the companies involved, but the source code that comprises the software running this thing.
- madeofpalk 8y ago
  I think the point is though, that a major premis of the article was "you must use these brushes and give us your dats OR ELSE", but it was entirely unsubstaniated.
  - mar77i 8y ago
    What's it called when you look for a general wisdom in an everyday situation? ethics? That's all I see myself pointed to in the article. Would we accept "OR ELSE" as a society? Should we? What laws does our government come up with so we can make sure "OR ELSE" doesn't happen past the certain extent it already does? Can we attach a metric for how much "OR ELSE" is too much?
    - madeofpalk 8y ago
      But the article doesnt put forward that the 'OR ELSE' case actually exists. The author just hypothesis it (which is relevant itself!) and goes from there, without providing any sort of hint of evidence.

dingaling 8y ago

This is a great counterpoint to Google's insistence that there doesn't need to be a discrete "Internet access" permission in Android. Their position is that if apps are all well-siloed then it doesn't matter if they chat to the Cloud because they can't leak data to which you have denied them access ( contacts, photos etc ) But that's only true for on-device data; here's an app that's relaying data from a Bluetooth source. Data which the user would prefer it didn't send to the Cloud. But without rooting there's no way to stop it doing so. Please Google, give us the ability to block Internet access.

BLanen 8y ago

This guy doesn't understand the difference between free 'you're the product' products and free-included-with-the-product, which is actually just the cost included with the product you bought, in this case insurance. The language he uses makes it seem as though it's OF COURSE going to be in the first category, even though it's an extra with his insurance. If they included a not-smart electric touthbrush, would he also use 'free' in a suspicious way? No, because there wouldn't be an article because it would just be part of the insurers marketing. Kind of annoyed me.