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The reason your free weather app asks for your location data isn't for "local weather forecasts". Well, it is, but that's a cost for them. The income comes from
by floatrock 7y ago
The reason your free weather app asks for your location data isn't for "local weather forecasts". Well, it is, but that's a cost for them. The income comes from keeping that location tracking on all the time and selling which stores and dentists you go to. Someone can link the NYT story from a few months ago when this came to mainstream attention.
Hedge funds also fly cesnas over refinery fields to look at the levels of those big tanks you see off the highway... most of them have roofs that move up or down with capacity, and those that don't you look at with an infrared camera to look at relative temperature differences.
- goodfight 7y agoIf anyone is profiting off my location I better get a cut of it haha. It's amazing what they can do and I enjoy data-centric trading strategies but we don't have to violate individual privacy.
- knd775 7y agoSome employees of a credit card company got in trouble for this sort of thing a while ago. They were running queries against customer transactions to figure out sales ahead of earnings calls. For example, they figured out that Chipotle was going to beat expectations and bought a ton of stock just before the earnings call. (This very predictably got the attention of the SEC)
- Thrymr 7y agoPrevious discussion of that event on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8966817 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8966817
- oh_sigh 7y agoHow is a free weather app supposed to tell you the local weather without knowing your location?
- thinkingemote 7y agoType in a place name