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This article really deserves more attention. I hope you repost it at some point. The Datacultr app mentioned is a particularly barefaced example of efficiently
by yew 6y ago
This article really deserves more attention. I hope you repost it at some point.
The Datacultr app mentioned is a particularly barefaced example of efficiently extracting small amounts of money from many users through hardware control.
There's also the idea of (effectively) embedding loans in smart hardware so they follow whoever's actually trying to use it. (Also already thing with cars.)
Both techniques seem likely to have many other applications. Probably very unpleasant ones.
- isoprophlex 6y ago> Datacultr’s app has access to huge amounts of data: everything from texts, images, and user location. “We did some research and figured out, You know what? People really still want to buy a phone,” Juriasingani told Rest of World, explaining the genesis of his company. “They just can’t afford it.” If a person engages in these manipulative tactics, they'd be called psychopaths. But for a faceless corporate entity it's of course totally fine. Surveillance capitalism continues the war on it's users.
- tehjoker 6y agoIt's sometimes enlightening to read the words of business people in the cant of a mob boss.
- goatinaboat 6y agoIt's sometimes enlightening to read the words of business people in the cant of a mob boss. In some parts of the world they are the same thing
- akshaybhalotia 6y agoAn interesting corollary I heard to "smart hardware that follows you" is "giving loans to generate more data that helps give more loans". That level of profiling sounds scary to me. Data is being used as collateral in this case, so this model literally treats data as "property", which IMO is not a good way of thinking about data.
- potta_coffee 6y agoExtreme example, imagine this kind of software in a prosthetic, pacemaker, or other medical device. In automotive, "buy-here-pay-here" lots have been using tricky devices to disable and locate cars when payments are missed.
- eru 6y agoI see the problems when applied to pacemakers and similar. But applied to cars, this technology seems like an unalloyed good. Just like offering your kneecap as a surety can allow people with limited traditional collateral get a loan, this technology broadens who can get loans. (Without the risk of physical injury.)