4 ms·

I'm curious who or what the end goal of GoodRx is. They pay for expensive ($$$$$$) cloud anti-bot/anti-scraping, captcha you after a few requests if you run adb

by ev1 6y ago

I'm curious who or what the end goal of GoodRx is. They pay for expensive ($$$$$$) cloud anti-bot/anti-scraping, captcha you after a few requests if you run adblock, they pay for extensive browser/device (attempting to reidentify a user across multiple devices/multiple browsers) fingerprinting services and Fastly. The site loads a dozen trackers, googletagmanager, branch, segment, what are they doing with this data? How much money are they spending handing out coupons? The coupons aren't unique or require a login, why go through all of this? All the services they use are "request demo / contact us for enterprise pricing", not free-to-sign-up SaaS either. Just who is paying for all this and with what?

canada_dry 6y ago
> what are they doing with this data? As a company selling via the internet it would be handy to know what drugs/prescriptions a prospective client (via fingerprinting) is taking... it would certainly change what/if I marketed to them. Of course the concept of retail companies having even the slightest access to a customer's medical/health/drug information for marketing purposes is a compelling plot for Black Mirror.
- ev1 6y ago
  Amusingly, right as I read this reply, I get a chain of heavily-obfuscated JS loading with the text Please verify you are a human Access to this page has been denied because we believe you are using automation tools to browse the website. Please make sure that Javascript and cookies are enabled on your browser and that you are not blocking them from loading.
  - gruez 6y ago
    Weird. I don't get it even though I use VPN + firefox w/ resistfingerprinting
dageshi 6y ago
Usually coupon sites are very profitable because they signal immediate intent to purchase, I assume they have affiliate links for whoever they're providing coupons for, any kind of coupon site is usually in fierce competition. As for all the bot countermeasures, the reason for that isn't immediately obvious to me, I assume it must be due to that competition.
- ev1 6y ago
  These are not clickable affiliate links; when you pick your pharmacy it gives you a PDF to print out and hand the pharmacist at time of (IRL) payment. There appears to be some tracking, as "Member ID" differs on each reload. I assume this is tied to cookies or fingerprints in the backend.
ineedasername 6y ago
Their end-game is collecting user data & collecting a referral fee when people use their "insurance". (The coupons generally are not actual coupons, they present as an insurance coverage policy & code that pharmacies use the same way they would your normal insurance card). That's how they make their money. Personally, for me, the data they can collect off of me when I go to their site is worth the ~$2,000 I save every month. (actually I don't have to use them: I am prudent, and part of my contingency planning for losing my job is to know exactly what expenses I could strip away, and how (and for how long) I could continue to pay for the bare essentials. GoodRx is part of that planning for the healthcare end of things)
- ev1 6y ago
  As a European now living in the US, my first thought is that the $2,000 shouldn't even exist to be collected, especially by invasive data broker rent seekers.
  - ericmay 6y ago
    It’s collected (generally speaking) one way or another. Unfortunately right now it’s collected from the lower and middle classes, but no matter what you do drugs, treatments, doctors, hospitals, etc. cost money. It’s never, ever, ever “free”. If a drug costs $2,000/month there are probably some inefficiencies baked into the price, but even if it were $500/month, that $500 has to come from somewhere.
    - ericd 6y ago
      Probably some inefficiencies baked into the price? There are massive inefficiencies at every level. I probably wouldn't share this "it's the way it is because it has to be" reasoning if you've never looked into why US healthcare is as expensive as it is. For a decent overview: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/why-does-health-care-cost-so-m https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/why-does-health-care-co... "Just to give you one example, Duke University Hospital has 900 hospital beds and 1,300 billing clerks."
bqe 6y ago
> They pay for expensive ($$$$$$) cloud anti-bot/anti-scraping, captcha you after a few requests if you run adblock, they pay for extensive browser/device (attempting to reidentify a user across multiple devices/multiple browsers) fingerprinting services and Fastly. This sounds like a great anti-account takeover program. I imagine with all of the various compliance programs they have to deal with and the legal risk, these are prudent measures.
- ev1 6y ago
  There is no registration or login.
pkaye 6y ago
GoodRx doesn't pay for the medicines. They just offer the copay discount cards already available from manufacturers. The manufacturers have a fake prices they use as a negotiating point with insurance companies to maximize their profit.

by ev1 6y ago

canada_dry 6y ago

> what are they doing with this data? As a company selling via the internet it would be handy to know what drugs/prescriptions a prospective client (via fingerprinting) is taking... it would certainly change what/if I marketed to them. Of course the concept of retail companies having even the slightest access to a customer's medical/health/drug information for marketing purposes is a compelling plot for Black Mirror.

ev1 6y ago
Amusingly, right as I read this reply, I get a chain of heavily-obfuscated JS loading with the text Please verify you are a human Access to this page has been denied because we believe you are using automation tools to browse the website. Please make sure that Javascript and cookies are enabled on your browser and that you are not blocking them from loading.
- gruez 6y ago
  Weird. I don't get it even though I use VPN + firefox w/ resistfingerprinting

dageshi 6y ago

Usually coupon sites are very profitable because they signal immediate intent to purchase, I assume they have affiliate links for whoever they're providing coupons for, any kind of coupon site is usually in fierce competition. As for all the bot countermeasures, the reason for that isn't immediately obvious to me, I assume it must be due to that competition.

ev1 6y ago
These are not clickable affiliate links; when you pick your pharmacy it gives you a PDF to print out and hand the pharmacist at time of (IRL) payment. There appears to be some tracking, as "Member ID" differs on each reload. I assume this is tied to cookies or fingerprints in the backend.

ineedasername 6y ago

Their end-game is collecting user data & collecting a referral fee when people use their "insurance". (The coupons generally are not actual coupons, they present as an insurance coverage policy & code that pharmacies use the same way they would your normal insurance card). That's how they make their money. Personally, for me, the data they can collect off of me when I go to their site is worth the ~$2,000 I save every month. (actually I don't have to use them: I am prudent, and part of my contingency planning for losing my job is to know exactly what expenses I could strip away, and how (and for how long) I could continue to pay for the bare essentials. GoodRx is part of that planning for the healthcare end of things)

ev1 6y ago
As a European now living in the US, my first thought is that the $2,000 shouldn't even exist to be collected, especially by invasive data broker rent seekers.
- ericmay 6y ago
  It’s collected (generally speaking) one way or another. Unfortunately right now it’s collected from the lower and middle classes, but no matter what you do drugs, treatments, doctors, hospitals, etc. cost money. It’s never, ever, ever “free”. If a drug costs $2,000/month there are probably some inefficiencies baked into the price, but even if it were $500/month, that $500 has to come from somewhere.
  - ericd 6y ago
    Probably some inefficiencies baked into the price? There are massive inefficiencies at every level. I probably wouldn't share this "it's the way it is because it has to be" reasoning if you've never looked into why US healthcare is as expensive as it is. For a decent overview: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/why-does-health-care-cost-so-m https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/why-does-health-care-co... "Just to give you one example, Duke University Hospital has 900 hospital beds and 1,300 billing clerks."

bqe 6y ago

> They pay for expensive ($$$$$$) cloud anti-bot/anti-scraping, captcha you after a few requests if you run adblock, they pay for extensive browser/device (attempting to reidentify a user across multiple devices/multiple browsers) fingerprinting services and Fastly. This sounds like a great anti-account takeover program. I imagine with all of the various compliance programs they have to deal with and the legal risk, these are prudent measures.

ev1 6y ago
There is no registration or login.

pkaye 6y ago

GoodRx doesn't pay for the medicines. They just offer the copay discount cards already available from manufacturers. The manufacturers have a fake prices they use as a negotiating point with insurance companies to maximize their profit.