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Amazon launches Halo: tracks activity, body fat, emotions
- jacques_chester 6y agoI feel like choosing a name so close to "hell no" was a slight marketing failure.
- kache_ 6y agoI would love a device like this that I could load with my own software. Any suggestions? Other than building one myself? P:
- whatch 6y agoI believe you can achieve something similar with cheap tracker from xiaomi (like mi band) connected via "Notify and Fitness for Mi Band" (I use paid PRO version) or Gadgetbridge [0] (I didn't use it). Gadgetbridge looks better in terms of privacy, but for some reason I'd chosen Notify and Fitness for my mi band 4 and some xiaomi body scales. Probably because it had more features than gadgetbridge. [0]: https://gadgetbridge.org/ https://gadgetbridge.org/
- vanous 6y agoWhat features are you missing in Gadgetbridge? The upcoming release brings another round of goodies: events forwarding ( act on detected sleep, wake up...) and sports activities ( swimming, yoga ;), but also running, walking, biking...), including computer statistics for these. That besides many other small and large under the hood improvements...
- whatch 6y agoUnfortunately, I do not remember. I've bought my miband and set everything up last fall. I will definitely try Gadgedbrige again when there are less active covid cases in my city so I can continue working out outside. My main sport activites are free weight lifting and longboarding (long distance, 10+ km, no trick like on skateboard). In my current app I really like trend charts, especially weight trend (and recommendations on how to lose more weight based on my activity). Do not remember if they were present in Gadgetbridge when I last checked. But I don't like that the app I use now is slow on my old android (looks like unoptimized react native app).
- vanous 6y agoWe do not track weight (at this point), but do have charts (not trend charts) but these are all good ideas, i will mark them. Still, give Gadgetbridge a shot, you might like it. Check out our wiki, many things of the MiBand are similar with the Bip: https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge/wiki/Amazfit-Bip https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge/wiki/Amazfi... , which i think has most comprehensive article from the whole Huami (MiBand/Amazfit) family.
- pizza 6y ago> Tone: The globally accepted definition of health includes not just physical but also social and emotional well-being. The innovative Tone feature uses machine learning to analyze energy and positivity in a customer’s voice so they can better understand how they may sound to others, helping improve their communication and relationships. For example, Tone results may reveal that a difficult work call leads to less positivity in communication with a customer’s family, an indication of the impact of stress on emotional well-being. Reminds me of Radiohead's "fitter, happier, more productive self". ~Mindset tracking is pretty sensitive data, and to pay for the privilege to give something so personal away feels less than optimal. I would feel better about it I guess if there were a guarantee that no one would ever receive my data, ever, after Amazon, but even then...
- numpad0 6y agoA few giant elephants aside, I wonder how they train it at all and how it works across cultures, as coincidentally I just saw someone tweeting that multi-lingual person basically has independent thought processes and split personalities for each languages, and someone else following up they notice their facial expressions and gestures switch.
- A4ET8a8uTh0 6y agoAssuming it becomes widely accepted, the cases will be fascinating. Domestic abuse where voice data will be used to establish that individuals were lucid and not emotional.
- slackfan 6y agoWe see you're feeling down citizen, here's some targeted advertising so you can spend your money with us citizen. It's for your good, citizen. The question is, how much is Amazon paying me for my data? Oh, nothing? Yeah, nope.
- syncbehind 6y agoEven better, you get to pay them for it:)
- A4ET8a8uTh0 6y agoI am trying to remember the name of that short movie where you talked to the mirror and pills were dispensed. I feel sad. Let Amazon make it all better(orders gin). Frankly, I am horrified and I only began to process this information.
- EForEndeavour 6y ago> I only began to process this information. Might we interest you in augmenting your information-processing capacity with one of our many EC2 instance types? There's one for every workload!
- finkin1 6y agoInteresting that this device requires a monthly subscription fee. I'm very curious to see what level of success this achieves. Being able to track body fat percentage more accurately than smart scales seems like an amazing feature. Does any other wearable do this? My guess is the monthly subscription will be a massive barrier for most people, but kudos to Amazon for trying something different.
- Shivetya 6y agoOkay, I like the direction they went with their device. As in, health tracking devices that feed another device to me are far more interesting that devices with screens and other functionality that always seems to eat battery. Privacy of course is a concern but they seem to have addressed this but the test will be of course how it really plays out over time.
- simonebrunozzi 6y agoAs usual for things like this one: on one side there will be great benefits from tracking people's health using several metrics, something not possible even just a few years ago. On the other side, how these giant companies will handle our data, and how this data will be used by, for example, health insurance companies, is the sinister aspect of any innovation in this direction. It's a good example of "free market" trending to dystopian societies with huge disparities, whereas a good, simple, targeted government intervention (in terms of regulation, etc) could go a long way.
- rriepe 6y agoThe downside in capitalism: Some company has your data if you are dumb enough to buy the thing. The downside in not-capitalism: You're forced to wear it. It doesn't work. Your family is brought in for questioning when you try to take it off.
- simonebrunozzi 6y agoThe point is not capitalism vs communism: the point is how you interpret, how you regulate capitalism.
- rriepe 6y agoThere were capitalism vs. communism undertones.
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- pestkranker 6y agoI would like a comparison between this device and a DEXA scan regarding body fat measurement. EX: What is the approximate error margin?
- fortran77 6y agoDEXA scans are pretty cheap. A truck comes around to our gym a few times a year and I can get one for $40. (I'm at 12%)
- chrisdsaldivar 6y agoThey don’t go into details; but they claim it’s “as accurate as methods a doctor would use” and that they tested accuracy against DXA. https://blog.aboutamazon.com/devices/a-better-measure-of-health https://blog.aboutamazon.com/devices/a-better-measure-of-hea...
- pestkranker 6y agoInteresting. I'll wait for some unbiased results before buying one, but it's promising!
- schoolornot 6y agoThe monthly fee pisses me off. The only apparent differentiator on launch day is mood analysis and fancy BMI which I get from a WiFi scale. Not worth $4/mo.
- finkin1 6y agoTo me the main differentiator is the body fat percentage measurement that claims to be more accurate than smart scales.
- floatingatoll 6y agoI am no more willing to provide my biometric sleep, voice, and body data to Amazon than I would to eBay or Netflix. However, if you'd like to help Amazon train their human being analysis models and get no payment in return, this is your chance. What benefit does Amazon derive from having such comprehensive biometric data about Amazon consumers? They're offering this device at a significant loss vs. the investment that goes into it. > The innovative Tone feature uses machine learning to analyze energy and positivity in a customer’s voice Will they start charging people more for a product category when Alexa overhears that they're talking about it excitedly? Will they 'invite' you to install a Nielsen ratings integration that lets them listen for content and measure how you feel about it? If your pulse rate jumps during a Clorox bleach ad, will you start seeing ads for the Amazon Basics product that competes with it? > Body scan images are automatically deleted from the cloud after processing, so only the customer sees them. > Speech samples are always analyzed locally on the customer’s phone and automatically deleted after processing "Processing" permits them to train models and transmit training outcomes that are derived your body data, as they only commit to deleting the raw data, not the training outcomes that result from it. They can claim correctly that the raw data cannot be extracted from the processed results.
- LegitShady 6y agoRequires monthly fee Amazon level of privacy (expect none) Requires pictures of you to provide body readings This may be good for some buy this is a serious no go for me.
- buildbot 6y agoIn a hilarious naming clash, Halo is the name of a medical bracelet in the SciFi show Continuum created by one of the main characters, who is the CEO of a very Amazon like company. The bracelet uses ai to monitor, track, and treat your health. Since the show is of course science fiction, the bracelet is quickly misused. See the commercial for the device from the show: https://youtu.be/xfqaZ8_Z5aA https://youtu.be/xfqaZ8_Z5aA
- mzkply 6y agoJust the body fat calculation using the app is a great standalone feature.
- adoxyz 6y agoIf it does everything it claims to do with a very acceptable degree of accuracy (not expecting 100%), I wouldn't mind something like this, even with the monthly fee. As far as privacy, I'm more trusting of Amazon than a small startup personally.
- leftbrain 6y agoThey did already lie to congress about using sales data to screw other brands and favor their own ones. And they will use your data how ever they can, legal or illegal, for whatever they feel like gives them the edge over someone else. So how does their size quarantines honesty? Quite the opposite apparently.
- SpicyLemonZest 6y agoMost small startups I've encountered don't even have the principle of privacy; they happily vacuum up any data that's technologically feasible for them to collect in the name of helping them make data-driven decisions.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- aboringusername 6y ago> from the comfort and privacy of home There is no privacy in home, and that's exactly what you want, to track our every tap, thought and utterance when using Alexa or any of your spyware. > Health data is encrypted in transit and in the cloud I feel PR pieces like this have given up even trying, and they only add that entire section reluctantly. I'd respect technologists more if they just openly admitted that this data is tracked, collected, processed and used for ads or other metrics and possibly collected by law enforcement or other purposes. I mean, there was huge backlash against Ring cameras for working with the police, so absolutely nobody can trust anything that even remotely connects to the internet. What they should say: Truly private and encrypted: All data is stored locally, on device, and will never be transmitted via the internet. Using a free, open source application, you can transfer all the data to your own, secure offline storage. No data will be transmitted to Amazon, the cloud, or any other third party. Not even us can access your data. But, as we know, that is never going to happen as far as Amazon is concerned, they want to track every second of your life in billions of datapoints; how often you blink, how many steps you take, your every interaction within the world. They won't be happy until as much of our lives is being recorded by them as possible. Fuck Amazon.
- deegles 6y ago"The Dragon promises to keep your gold... err.. data safe."
- tiny_epoch 6y agoThe only sane choice is to simply not use the technology that tracks us.
- simonebrunozzi 6y agoHave you ever tried not to use a smartphone? I don't mean to be rude; I just don't think that "simply not use" is going to work.
- sunopener 6y agoImagine if this messaging wasn't from Amazon, but instead from your friend Bob down the street. Bob is pretty gregarious, but he's also creepy, what's he doing with all that data? Trying to take over the world? Narf!
- imheretolearn 6y agoThere was a post here on HN a few days ago about the loads of information that the Kindle tracks. Then there's Alexa which is supposed to "wake up" only when the wake word is used which we all know isn't true. And now there's Halo. Amazon wants to own you in a way no other company has been able to just yet. The most important question is, are you willing to trust amazon with all the data? I sure af don't
- actuator 6y agoThe fat measurement bit seems interesting. It seems entirely dependent on CV.[1] It does acknowledge that people gain fat differently but I am very apprehensive of this feature. Definition of muscles unless you go sub 10% BF looks very different among people. Also, clicking full body pictures and uploading it in a third party service even though this is Amazon feels very violating for some reason. I think traditional home/gym scales use electrical impedance to measure this like this Inbody one. [2] They also claim to have been validated by studies. I would rather want these devices to become more portable and affordable. [1] https://blog.aboutamazon.com/devices/a-better-measure-of-health https://blog.aboutamazon.com/devices/a-better-measure-of-hea... [2] https://inbodyusa.com/products/inbody770/ https://inbodyusa.com/products/inbody770/
- parliament32 6y agoElectrical impedance has been shown to be absolutely trash in accurately predicting bf%. I've used both Garmin's and Fitbit's smart scales, which are supposed to be top-of-the-line, and compared to DXA... the numbers aren't even close. Most people report similar experiences.
- actuator 6y agoThat's not something you can have at your home though, no? The DEXA/DXA scans machine I know of are something you can't keep at the comfort of your home. In my personal experience I have found impedance ones to be fairly accurate(~10%, BF range 10-16) and for most people the accuracy of full body ones is good to have a general idea about their body. Probably when you reach sub 10 levels, accuracy matters more. Btw, here is the link to studies they give: https://inbodyusa.com/studies/ https://inbodyusa.com/studies/
- parliament32 6y agoI've also found about a 10-point discrepancy. There's a huge difference between 15% and 25% bf.. one is approaching athletic while the other is obese. DXA is definitely less convenient, but there's no real reason to test your bf% daily (just like weighing yourself daily isn't productive, you need to look at average changes over time). Considering the amount of time it takes to significantly change your bf%, twice a year testing would be plenty.. and would probably cost you the same amount as this subscription service.
- tempsy 6y agoVery creepy to know people are voluntarily going to purchase a device that tracks your emotions and have that be used to inform Amazon's ad or product recommendation targeting.
- tsco77 6y agoLol, these self monitor systems can't even produce useful data in regards to heart arrhythmias, I would be surprised if they are any better at mood recognition given how complex mood is by comparison to heart function.
- tempsy 6y agoAre you talking about Apple Watch...? Does it matter if the V1 is totally accurate or not? Safe to assume it will get better over time. The point still stands.
- wtfppl99 6y agoI have little respect for a people and society that thinks we all need/want the Borg’s hive mind guiding us our entire lives. Talk about a failure to launch; a culture all about freedom tethering themselves to 5-6 companies product offerings. It’s sycophantic addiction to slightly nuanced proclamations of being visited with special instruction from Sky Wizard, who said old guy is wrong, follow new guys idea of holiness What a sad society when we’re so guilted it becomes too mean for family and friends to tell the unhealthy people in their lives just go for a 20 minute jog a few times a week. Instead we all look away from being humans to such folks, and wait for someone like Apple or Bezos to engineer fancy gadgets those unhealthy people can use to have a robot voice to tell them how to behave instead. Really standing on your own two legs by pushing away real people for rich daddy. What a bizarre psychological story this society has created. “Screw you if I can’t make a dime off you.”
- parliament32 6y agoI find the body fat measurement tech interesting: https://blog.aboutamazon.com/devices/a-better-measure-of-health https://blog.aboutamazon.com/devices/a-better-measure-of-hea... Basically you take some pictures of yourself and they build a 3D model, then use a neural network to analyze and predict bf%. They claim "is as accurate as methods a doctor would use" and "we tested accuracy using Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA)" but they're not saying exactly how accurate it is compared to DXA, so I suspect the number isn't great.
- awinter-py 6y agocrossing fingers that when amzn rolls out their social credit product, activity, body fat + emotions are the main inputs
- jonahbenton 6y agoCue promos with smiling Amazon warehouse workers attesting to Halo's success and helpfulness. On deeper inspection one of them is determined to have a near undetectable facial tic that could be seen to signal SOS in Morse code. She fails to appear in later promos. The dystopia deepens.
- renewiltord 6y agoWas really hoping to get periodic pulse oximetry on this. Otherwise, only the Tone feature seems interesting. I think I’ll pass on this. Monthly subscription doesn’t seem worth it for that.
- modeless 6y agoThe body fat tracking is based on 4 smartphone selfies that you take, and neural nets. Maybe they got good looking accuracy numbers on their in house test set, but I am extremely skeptical that this will be at all accurate in practice. Also, they had a hardware device designed to take pictures of your body called the "Echo Look" which they canceled not too long ago. Seems strange to introduce new body scanning features soon after that failure.
- ethbro 6y agoFAQ on Tone component: https://blog.aboutamazon.com/devices/a-new-tool-to-help-you-understand-and-improve-your-social-wellbeing https://blog.aboutamazon.com/devices/a-new-tool-to-help-you-... "Once you’ve opted-in by creating your voice profile, Tone will run passively and intermittently in the background so you don’t have to think about it. Throughout the day, it will take short samples of your speech and analyze the acoustic characteristics that represent how you sound to the people you interact with. This gives you a simple way to reflect on your interaction and communication throughout the day." Aka "Look, Amazon found a reason it needs to record your voice all the time. For science." Facebook must be fuming.
- hammock 6y agoHoly crap. They are openly saying they will now be recording and listening to (and transcribing presumably) your speech at any time. BTW, pretty sure Facebook and Google are already listening to speech and serving ads off it, just not admitting to it.
- terhechte 6y agoWhere does it say transcribing? To me it sounds like it is processing voice on device into emotion markers and only the emotion markers are send to amazon. So the actual voice information would never leave the device. I do think anything else would not be possible legally because you'd need to have consent from every stranger you have a discussion with, moreso what about trade secret meetings. I can't fathom Amazon would go that way.
- hammock 6y agoIt doesn't. However for the last nine or more years (since work on Echo began), transcription has been far and away the #1 way Amazon processes speech - not "emotion markers" or whatever else you are dreaming up. I don't see "emotion markers" mentioned or described, and "it sounds like they are doing something else" is not really a strong argument if you're trying to guarantee that they aren't transcribing it.
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- elchief 6y agoI like the thermometer idea, might help w COVID monitoring, no blood oxygen sensor though... My Fitbit heart rate monitor is pretty inaccurate, compared to my treadmill's chest monitor. Fitbit's walking calorie estimates are off by +1.5x. Maybe Halo is better
- wojciii 6y agoI didn't buy any of the competitor's products .. and I'm not going to buy this. While I buy stuff from Amazon I don't want them inside my house.
- technofiend 6y agoWhat's the over/under on how long before this yields a discount in Amazon's joint healthcare venture? One year? Two years? I figure it's only a matter of time. Employers can't make this mandatory without losing some face, but they can effectively make it mandatory by tying it to a few hundred dollar a month discount.
- dakna 6y agoGetting discounts for habits that reduce healthcare costs is not unusual, gym membership or health coaching sessions are already incentivized and you get some money reimbursed. These are one-size-fits-all, the amount of discount is not personalized. I'm not an insurance expert, but I think services like this, that generate personal data over time, pose the risk of calculating the individual insurance risk much better if the insurance underwriter can evaluate this data on an ongoing basis. It has the potential to skew the risk distribution for all other insurance members in the pool including premium adjustments for people who are not handing over their data.
- secondbreakfast 6y agoSurprised (or maybe not?) by the negativity of the comments here. This is a direct competitor to Whoop[1]. Athletes and friends of mine rave about it. Knowing physical strain, recovery levels, etc. helps you know when to train harder, when to take a day off, when to specifically rest up. For somebody aiming for elite performance (physically and mentally), the data is invaluable. [1]: https://www.whoop.com https://www.whoop.com
- mandeepj 6y agoWhoop does not have body fat percentage measurement. And, the monthly price of $30 is too high for me to get started with them.
- dawnerd 6y agoThey’re also not amazon, where a huge part of their business is data.
- secondbreakfast 6y agoYeah! This looks like a great offer for both of those reasons.
- nradov 6y agoWhy do your friends rave about Whoop when it produces inaccurate data? Were they fooled by the marketing or have they not compared it against a higher quality fitness tracker? https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2020/05/whoop-3-platform-review.html https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2020/05/whoop-3-platform-review....
- caiobegotti 6y agoIt's really funny and scary at the same time how companies these day choose (and convince most of us) privacy to only mean physical privacy, as if as long you are indoors at your house then your privacy is preserved, nothing to worry about. The more "ethereal" aspect of your privacy, on the other hand...
- hendersoon 6y agoPity it doesn't include blood oxygen monitoring. That would be a hot seller right now. On a side note, the first smartwatch to include blood glucose monitoring is going to make an incredible amount of money. I'm aware there are largely dedicated glucose monitoring devices in the watch form factor, but they aren't good smartwatches for other uses, super-thick, lacking heartrate monitoring and phone notifications, etc.
- axaxs 6y agoAmazon already more or less tracks these things, I think. About 3 years ago, I needed new jeans, so ordered some on Amazon. They were a little tight, and didn't loosen up, so I purchased the next size up (a couple months later). I immediately started seeing belt extenders and pants waistline extenders as suggested items. I assume their algorithm assumed I had gained weight. There is a ton of things they can do with that information.
- dawnerd 6y agoGoes back to that story of Targets algorithm figuring out a woman was pregnant before she even knew. I get it, it’s smart and maybe useful? But creepy as hell.
- ourmandave 6y agoActually that was Target knew a teen girl was pregnant before she'd told her dad. They mailed her a sales circular filled with baby related items based on she'd already bought a bunch of expectant mom related products (e.g. vitamins, scent free lotion). But imagine the fun ads you'll get once they have your bio-data. Here's a coupon for a discount on all your heart transplant meds! "But I don't take... oh sh*t!"
- dawnerd 6y agoOh yeah that's right! Found the article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-targ...
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Copyrighted 6y ago"Privacy is foundational to Amazon Halo, and multiple layers of privacy and security are built into the service to keep data safe and in customers’ control. Health data is encrypted in transit and in the cloud, and customers can download or delete their data at any time directly from the app. Body scan images are automatically deleted from the cloud after processing, so only the customer sees them. Tone is enabled by creating a personal voice profile, after which it begins capturing short samples of speech and providing insights and daily recaps. Speech samples are always analyzed locally on the customer’s phone and automatically deleted after processing—nobody, not even the customer, ever hears them. Learn more about Amazon Halo privacy features." Playing devils advocate, but it doesn't sound like they retain any data unless you opt into a third party program. Also the emotional part sounds really creepy. "For example, Tone results may reveal that a difficult work call leads to less positivity in communication with a customer’s family, an indication of the impact of stress on emotional well-being." Yeah, no thanks. I don't need a machine to help me regulate my emotions. Coming to a dystopian future near you, a call center using Tone. "It appears you didn't sound positive enough in your last call! Please try harder or you will get written up." I'm surprised they called it Halo. First thing I thought of was the video game from Bungie.
- hammock 6y agoCouple things, since surveillance organizations like tech companies and government intelligence bureaus have been known for weasel words: >Speech samples are always analyzed locally on the customer’s phone OK, and are they ONLY analyzed there? Are they also uploaded anywhere? Are they also analyzed anywhere else? >automatically deleted after processing Deleted from where? The local storage? See above, what if it's also uploaded somewhere else? >nobody, not even the customer, ever hears them. No human? Are transcriptions created that could be reviewed by a human?
- Copyrighted 6y agoI'm not disagreeing with you. I don't trust Amazon. I think the questions you mentioned above are what people should be asking. I just interpreted what I read on the site.
- mandeepj 6y agoWith their 3d modeling feature, they can kill ShapeScale before its launch. https://shapescale.com/ https://shapescale.com/
- freefrancisco 6y agoSo it's the Oura ring plus body fat detection and analyzing your voice. Are these two extra things worth paying a monthly subscription? I will probably get it anyway, at least for the first six months, just to play with it and see how much extra value it gives me on top of the Oura.
- A4ET8a8uTh0 6y agoI fear that people will actually use it. Once you ignore privacy implications ( and in US privacy is something companies pay lip service to and only weird people like me worry about ), I can absolutely see the appeal to an individual. Who would not want to track their progress? And I am saying this having now been in several's people houses with Alexa running lights. Not young people, or tech enthusiasts either. Old people who should know better.
- algorithmsRcool 6y agoI wouldn't trust Amazon or any other tech giant with data about my emotions, that information is more personal to me than the contents of my day to day conversations or any other biometrics they might be scraping. What an unimaginable panopticon we are entering into. But in a dream world, I would love a device that could help me map out my emotional state over time. My emotional health is a huge component to my well being. I currently manually keep an offline journal of my mood daily and use it to better understand myself, offloading that to a passive monitor would be great.
- dvaun 6y agoThere may still be a way to reap benefits from this device without sharing any data with Amazon. If I were to use this, I would use an older phone that would: 1. Only download the app necessary for using this device 2. Only provide Bluetooth connectivity. I would not use a SIM or connect to any wifi networks
- pseudalopex 6y agoIt requires a subscription. You can't keep it offline forever. Some features send data to Amazon for processing.
- khalilravanna 6y agoAny word on if it's possible to use it for the sleep function only and have that data not sent to the cloud? Sounds like wishful thinking. For $65, a device that can collect good sleep data and has a temperature monitor seems really nice. The closest thing I've found is the Oura ring which you're lucky if you can get a used one for $200. Perhaps we'll have to wait for Apple to announce their (hopefully) inevitable "health app" offering. I'm hopeful that they'll be smart about making something privacy-centric.
- mdoms 6y agoWhy.... Why would you give this information to Amazon?
- DIVx0 6y agoI want these sort of devices in my life but I don't want them connected to some unknowable blackbox. I remember growing up and reading all of these breathless futuristic magazine articles, books or interviews that featured what technology might be like in the future (the future is now). Those dreamed of devices do a lot of what today's actual devices do. The difference is that the hypothetical devices were built and sold to service the consumer and not act as a vehicle to gather data for whatever unknown purposes the manufacture is really interested in. I think about the movie "Her" where the AI is purchased and installed onto an owned device and seemingly works only on behalf of the person that installed it and not who built it. Until we get to that sort of mind set (if ever) i will sadly have to opt-out of using these cool inventions.
- hereme888 6y agoI don't know what the privacy and anti-Amazon sentiment in these commens is all about. I'm not a fan of Amazon for privacy, but has anyone even checked out their prviacy policy for Halo? They literally have a cartoon video explaining privacy, such as how you can turn off the microphones, how all health data is anonimized, etc. Making a cartoon video explaining privacy policy is genius (so long as its not deceitful, which I doubt it is). Would others agree that anonimizing health data is potentially super useful for society? I also know that Amazon is one of the premier security infrastructure providers, so the data would probably be quite safe, yes?
- kthejoker2 6y agoOne more stone's throw in a very long game ... To acclimate passive surveillance in service of omnichannel sales and marketing. To quantify and analyze everything. The only countermeasure is to create tools to directly thwart these efforts, and provide self-contained systems to allow users to reap the benefits of these technologies (monitoring one's own health is certainly an objective good) while preventing those would profit on it from doing so. I'm envisioning an application set to an encrypted algorithm who injects enough noise into this system, imperceptibly different from human behavior, that by private key the user is able to (privately, securely, and offline) remove the noise for their own analysis.
- freefrancisco 6y agoOne thing I would like to know though, is if I pay for this, do I get access to the raw data to download and analyze myself? That's one of the things I really like about the Oura, I can download the data into a python notebook and do all sorts of analysis on it. It would be cool to combine both data streams and see what insight I can get from it.
- pnathan 6y agoI pay Amazon for them to take a deep analysis of my entire existence? How about no.
- hammock 6y ago@dang this really got flagged off the first page, huh? :/