4 ms·

Why in the world would anyone need headphones that need personal info?

heavyset_go 6y ago
Everyone, including headphone manufacturers, are trying to get in on the gold rush that is turning their customers into fonts of personal data that can be sold to the highest bidder.
- zelly 6y ago
  I see this sentiment mentioned a lot, but who actually pays for this data? Is there a company I can call that will buy my amorphous "user data"? What are their names?
  - sebastien_b 6y ago
    Just because you haven’t heard of them doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Ask yourself (as the article does): why would they even need this data? (menstrual cycle?? Really!?!)
    - vongomben 6y ago
      Well menstrual cicle is a gold mine. But I miss the connection with headphones...
      - phreack 6y ago
        The obvious reason is money and a lack of ethics, but the dogwhistle reason is that these headphones are supposed to be used with a health and fitness app.
  - mixmastamyk 6y ago
    One user is worthless, a few pennies. A million and things get interesting.
    - zelly 6y ago
      Say I have a database full of metrics, user agents, IPs, GPS, names, addresses, photos, etc. on a million users, who would I call to sell it? Genuinely curious.
      - glenstein 6y ago
        Here's a list of approximately a hundred companies that acquire and sell data in various ways, some of whom would plausibly be interested in your hypothetical trove of data: https://konsole.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/217592967-Third-Party-Data-Marketplace https://konsole.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/217592967-Thir...
      - vifon 6y ago
        You don't call them, they call you.
      - lmkg 6y ago
        One part of CCPA is that data brokers have to register themselves with the Attorney General if they trade in the data of California residents. The registry is public. You could start there. https://www.oag.ca.gov/data-brokers https://www.oag.ca.gov/data-brokers
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - oblio 6y ago
    Spammers. Spammers that used to buy phone number records or email addresses or postal addresses. I worked for one for a brief time ~15 years ago (at the time it wasn't obvious what they were doing). It's the kind of people that would have sent mass mail junk 60 years ago (and probably still send it today!). Heck, you can see them even on this site, check for some marketing optimization technique articles that sometimes pop up here. Even a good chunk of our fellow HNers are spammers.
qppo 6y ago
I don't know if this counts and I haven't seen it outside of research projects, but 3D spatialization (that's worth a damn) basically requires it be tuned for the user's particular head geometry.
- joshvm 6y ago
  The top end Sony headphones actually ask for a photo of your ears to do exactly this. It's only for use with the fancy spatially aware apps - pretty much only Deezer does this at the moment? I signed up for a free trial (and I did send a photo of my ears), but I couldn't tell the difference and the HD library was so small it didn't seem worth paying monthly for it.

Everyone, including headphone manufacturers, are trying to get in on the gold rush that is turning their customers into fonts of personal data that can be sold to the highest bidder.

zelly 6y ago
I see this sentiment mentioned a lot, but who actually pays for this data? Is there a company I can call that will buy my amorphous "user data"? What are their names?
- sebastien_b 6y ago
  Just because you haven’t heard of them doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Ask yourself (as the article does): why would they even need this data? (menstrual cycle?? Really!?!)
  - vongomben 6y ago
    Well menstrual cicle is a gold mine. But I miss the connection with headphones...
    - phreack 6y ago
      The obvious reason is money and a lack of ethics, but the dogwhistle reason is that these headphones are supposed to be used with a health and fitness app.
- mixmastamyk 6y ago
  One user is worthless, a few pennies. A million and things get interesting.
  - zelly 6y ago
    Say I have a database full of metrics, user agents, IPs, GPS, names, addresses, photos, etc. on a million users, who would I call to sell it? Genuinely curious.
    - glenstein 6y ago
      Here's a list of approximately a hundred companies that acquire and sell data in various ways, some of whom would plausibly be interested in your hypothetical trove of data: https://konsole.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/217592967-Third-Party-Data-Marketplace https://konsole.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/217592967-Thir...
    - vifon 6y ago
      You don't call them, they call you.
    - lmkg 6y ago
      One part of CCPA is that data brokers have to register themselves with the Attorney General if they trade in the data of California residents. The registry is public. You could start there. https://www.oag.ca.gov/data-brokers https://www.oag.ca.gov/data-brokers
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- oblio 6y ago
  Spammers. Spammers that used to buy phone number records or email addresses or postal addresses. I worked for one for a brief time ~15 years ago (at the time it wasn't obvious what they were doing). It's the kind of people that would have sent mass mail junk 60 years ago (and probably still send it today!). Heck, you can see them even on this site, check for some marketing optimization technique articles that sometimes pop up here. Even a good chunk of our fellow HNers are spammers.

qppo 6y ago

I don't know if this counts and I haven't seen it outside of research projects, but 3D spatialization (that's worth a damn) basically requires it be tuned for the user's particular head geometry.

joshvm 6y ago
The top end Sony headphones actually ask for a photo of your ears to do exactly this. It's only for use with the fancy spatially aware apps - pretty much only Deezer does this at the moment? I signed up for a free trial (and I did send a photo of my ears), but I couldn't tell the difference and the HD library was so small it didn't seem worth paying monthly for it.