4 ms·

I used to work on systems like this. The thing is there is a lot of data. But no effective or even interesting ways to use that data. My guess they want to g

I used to work on systems like this. The thing is there is a lot of data. But no effective or even interesting ways to use that data. My guess they want to get into the 'home automation' bits. Which is a huge money sink and really not that interesting. They also need to be willing to do something more than on a 2-3 year time frame. I have things in my house that are 25+ years old. I zero plans on replacing them. My parents have a house that is 80 years old. They also have zero plans on replacing things. For the embedded market which is where ADT sits they need to be thinking 10-15 year time frames. They also need to think in the 'fail usable' state. If my internet goes out and I can not get my garage door open I am not happy and that thing will be on the way to the garbage bin. They also probably want in on that monthly recurring lease on equipment you do not really own.

ocdtrekkie 6y ago
I think when you combine data about doors opening and closing, security system status (home/away/stay) and existing data for location history and the like, it presents a lot more accuracy to people's routines, which can potentially be leveraged to sell ads. I don't feel like that data is easily monetizable to a company like ADT, but is likely very monetizable to Google.
- justapassenger 6y ago
  You get this data, much much easier and more reliable from IP and explicit position tracking on web and in apps
  - cromwellian 6y ago
    And cheaper too then trying to infer it from building out a huge home market. Smartphones are carried by everyone, and people are on them all the time. HN commentators often have a naive idea that more data is always better.
- sumtechguy 6y ago
  Oh I do not disagree. It is just a tough field to actually extract any value out of. I would bet at this point most of these companies sell that sort of data to 3rd party already. It is probably buried in that tomb of a contract they give people. There is a second possibility here. That no one is exploring. That Google is just investing money. Which means they have no effective way to use their existing capital. MS ended up at this position at one point.

ocdtrekkie 6y ago

I think when you combine data about doors opening and closing, security system status (home/away/stay) and existing data for location history and the like, it presents a lot more accuracy to people's routines, which can potentially be leveraged to sell ads. I don't feel like that data is easily monetizable to a company like ADT, but is likely very monetizable to Google.

justapassenger 6y ago
You get this data, much much easier and more reliable from IP and explicit position tracking on web and in apps
- cromwellian 6y ago
  And cheaper too then trying to infer it from building out a huge home market. Smartphones are carried by everyone, and people are on them all the time. HN commentators often have a naive idea that more data is always better.
sumtechguy 6y ago
Oh I do not disagree. It is just a tough field to actually extract any value out of. I would bet at this point most of these companies sell that sort of data to 3rd party already. It is probably buried in that tomb of a contract they give people. There is a second possibility here. That no one is exploring. That Google is just investing money. Which means they have no effective way to use their existing capital. MS ended up at this position at one point.