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It will be interesting to see how Google uses the fitbit data. I could see them synchronizing a user's searches with their heartbeat information to try to gauge
by Oblouk 7y ago
It will be interesting to see how Google uses the fitbit data. I could see them synchronizing a user's searches with their heartbeat information to try to gauge emotional response to topics.
- akhoja 7y ago:)
- eckza 7y agoThat's not absolutely fucking horrifying or anything.
- B1FF_PSUVM 7y agoAround 2005 or so, Google floated (and let sink) the creepy idea that you should let them listen to your mic, so that they could supply useful info, for instance about the football game you were watching. This is now the new normal. Pretty sure whatever is now weird will soon be normal too, given a spreadsheet or two to push it through. (Heinlein was not nearly imaginative enough about the Crazy Years, no one could be. Might as well blame him for not thinking of the "Walk on Your Hands" thing.)
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- pstuart 7y agoThanks for the Heinlein reminder. For some reason, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress has been in my thoughts, but I couldn't really say why....
- spectramax 7y agoThis obsession of pervasive targeted ads, and A/B testing methods needs to stop. I have stopped using all google services except for search and YouTube. Apple Maps is fine now, if you need a free email account, you can get one on iCloud.com. Who are these soulless marketing execs that are OK with using this type of extremely personal health data!? There should be a moral objection, which evidently isn’t there. That’s more horrifying.
- mtnGoat 7y agosometimes i wonder if the oversized paychecks at some of these companies are for the people with the best skills, or the people with the least morals.
- salsadip 7y agoI guess moral only exists for things which were a problem for a long time. Mass data collection is a relatively new thing. So morals around data collection don't really exist; ask the average person on the street how much they care about this. Result is those non-existent morals weren't able to be codified in law hence no wonder somebody is out there 'exploiting' this.
- spectramax 7y ago> I guess moral only exists for things which were a problem for a long time. If we eliminate homicides in the world, our morals wont change about killing another person. Eliminating the problem or how long it’s been a problem has nothing to do with morality.
- hirundo 7y agoIt's only horrifying if it's not opt-in.
- lrem 7y agoAs someone who's taken the internal trainings a few times by now: NOPE. Health data is scary-scary and no team wants to taint itself with it, unless it's the core of the product.
- kbenson 7y agoI hope that's true. I suspect that if it is, it only is until one or two teams does it successfully and monetizes that outcome. Then it's open season. That's a trend in computing. It's forever too hard, until all of a sudden it isn't for a very select few and they do amazing things[1]. Then a year or two later everyone is doing it. 1: Amazing is relative, and in this case may be less about customers getting something amazing and more about to the execs looking at amazing profit reports...
- Bonooru 7y agoHealth data is scary because of HIPAA (and the equivalent in non-US jurisdictions) not because it's inherently special or hard to make sense of.
- nitrogen 7y agoIs Fitbit location history covered by HIPAA?
- peterwwillis 7y agoBasically, any given health record is covered by HIPAA if it 1) includes personal health information, 2) includes personally identifiable information, and 3) is used by a Covered Entity or Business Associate for some health care purpose. Just being "data with health-related information in it" doesn't make it covered by HIPAA; it has to actually be used by a specific set of organizations for a purpose related to health care. If Fitbit just stored your personal fitbit data in a data lake in the cloud, that's not covered by HIPAA. But if it then shared that data with a service that made suggestions about your health, now it's covered by HIPAA. But if Fitbit allowed your smartphone to download your data, and gave you an app that allowed you personally to see health-related information about that data, that is (afaik) not covered by HIPAA, because you and your phone alone are not a Covered Entity or Business Associate. Fitbit has a "health solutions" department which seems dedicated to healthcare solutions based on Fitbit data: https://healthsolutions.fitbit.com/ https://healthsolutions.fitbit.com/ My guess is anything HIPAA-related is solely done through that arm of the company. Example: https://healthsolutions.fitbit.com/healthsystems/ https://healthsolutions.fitbit.com/healthsystems/ I take this as them saying, "Hey Covered Entities, sign a Business Associate contract with us, and you can hoover up Fitbit data directly from us". By writing some glue code and doing the HIPAA hokey-pokey, they make a tidy profit.
- harikb 7y agoIt doesn't always have to be about linking everything to everything. They (Android) needs a decent watch/health device, one that Google has some control over. As it stands today, lack of 'Apple watch' support really kills their Pixel/Android sales.
- bordercases 7y agoConsidering that Google's primary revenue is through advertising, and digital advertising's two main problems are (a) identity and (b) context, yes, it is still very much about linking, even if they need to prop up smaller projects or loss-leaders to collect the appropriate data (the secondary value proposition acts as a stepping stone to the first).
- harikb 7y agothe number of fitbit owners <<< number of google identities (for search traffic) and data and location from fitbit owners < what they can already get from the andriod phone. I get the point you are making, I am not denying there is value, but it is a stretch that it is all about data. In fact, I have heard about companies who had ties with Fitbit to sell location data to third parties. I would much rather have Google be that arbitrator. I don't work for Google or Fitbit.
- MagnumPIG 7y agoDoesn't have to but could be. And with Alphabet being the giant it is, anything that reasonably could be happening probably is. And I find it a reasonable and scary possibility, even if it's not the primary reason for the acquisition.
- criddell 7y agoThey can't even get messaging right and that's way simpler. I doubt they can get health right.
- bduerst 7y agoNo way is it simple - there are over a dozen OEMs each competing and advertising their Android phones with the co-branded messaging that they see fit. The whole strategy behind the Pixel phone was to change the perception of the android brand as a cheap, bloatware'd device for tech dudes. Releasing a recognizable, high quality wearable line fits in with that strategy.
- ChrisAntaki 7y agoI'm pretty sure your proposal would cause every Fitbit user to switch to Bing
- mattigames 7y agoYou may have a bit too much faith in people.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]