6 ms·

To collect data so they can do marketing and advertising to customers.

by eagerpace 2y ago

lowtech8 2y ago
And charge them more, maybe sell some of their personal data too
- maccard 2y ago
  To who? Say I have an app with 1M downloads. Who do I sell 1M email addresses and the fact they've bought a toothbrush to?
  - johndough 2y ago
    People who install a tooth brushing app will probably buy all kinds of electronics stuff, so I'd wager that such a list would be somewhat valuable.
    - maccard 2y ago
      I hear these things, but I don’t know who these companies are. It feels a bit like the tv license ban
  - ragnese 2y ago
    Honestly, even if it's not sustainable and never ends up profitable, I'd be willing to bet there are multiple entities that exist that would pay you some ridiculous amount of money for that info just to try to resell that info or attempt to monetize it directly "some day". Think about how many companies have pivoted to burning cash on adding "AI" to their products. How many of those cases are going to end up actually being a good business decision? Probably very few. It's likely the same with everyone just wanting "data" to "analyze"--even if they have no idea how it might be useful.
barbazoo 2y ago
How does that work here? Say I have that toothbrush, the app, and say I had to sign up to use it. What they know is how long the toothbrush is on. How are they going to monetize that data?
- flerchin 2y ago
  I'd always thought that it was about any other data they can slurp from your phone. Presumably knowing your hygiene habits is valuable when correlated with your facebook activty. Just having a list of people that overspend on this type of tech and have the app installed is probably valuable. tl;dr IDK but they don't do it without a profit motive.
- lofaszvanitt 2y ago
  Like if the average user uses it for 15 seconds, it might signal them that the existing brushes need to be wider/longer/arced, so users can clean their teeth efficiently in that timeframe. And yeah, the usual electric toothbrushes are terrible slow since the brush heads are in the size of one teeth, instead of 3-4.
- willcipriano 2y ago
  You know the underpants gnomes, it's like that: Step 1: collect data Step 2: ??? Step 3: Profit Hopefully you sell the company between Step 1 and 2.
- wholinator2 2y ago
  Well, say the app requests access to your contacts... so you can link up with friends! Or your files... so it can save your data locally! Or your location... well i don't know. The app doesn't only check your bruhing habits, it's 300mb! At any point it could be updated to do any amount of spying and you'll never be able to tell
  - Bluestein 2y ago
    > link up with friends! Competitive brushing!
winternett 2y ago
The extra code might there to determine your spending habits across other apps and your bank balance and then to determine where you're located so that it can provide information on regional affluence so they can price toothpaste & brushes higher in strategic regions... That's just an example guess, but the bloat is there for a purpose... I'm pretty sure the app gets updated on intervals too, just like so many others under the guise of "security or functional updates". We're in an era where data is weaponized for profit maximization... The most simple and seemingly benign data sets when combined strategically can work against consumers deeply. We need app audit boards now, maybe even on a government level, and specific detail of everything apps do to be displayed in app stores. There should be serious consequences if apps are found to do things that are not detailed in their release/update descriptions. This collected data can persist forever, and be used in some of the most destructive ways. Device/OS makers also need to do better at preventing/partitioning non-essential apps from collecting data they don't need access to... Likely reasons why this isn't already in place is because most don't know how it happens, and many others are invested in these companies, so they turn a blind eye on regulation of them.
- ragnese 2y ago
  To be fair, all of that tracking and data collection would still never add up to some 100MB. It's more likely that they have extremely unoptimized assets (images, icons, fonts, time zone data, sounds, etc) and/or are using one of these janky "frameworks" that let you slap together a half-baked "native" app in a few hours by translating your poorly-written JavaScript into poorly-written native code.
  - vorticalbox 2y ago
    From the x thread 80% of the size is pdfs of their toothbrush products.
    - ragnese 2y ago
      Makes sense. I don't have an X account, so I can only see the linked post (AFAIK).

To collect data so they can do marketing and advertising to customers.

lowtech8 2y ago

And charge them more, maybe sell some of their personal data too

maccard 2y ago
To who? Say I have an app with 1M downloads. Who do I sell 1M email addresses and the fact they've bought a toothbrush to?
- johndough 2y ago
  People who install a tooth brushing app will probably buy all kinds of electronics stuff, so I'd wager that such a list would be somewhat valuable.
  - maccard 2y ago
    I hear these things, but I don’t know who these companies are. It feels a bit like the tv license ban
- ragnese 2y ago
  Honestly, even if it's not sustainable and never ends up profitable, I'd be willing to bet there are multiple entities that exist that would pay you some ridiculous amount of money for that info just to try to resell that info or attempt to monetize it directly "some day". Think about how many companies have pivoted to burning cash on adding "AI" to their products. How many of those cases are going to end up actually being a good business decision? Probably very few. It's likely the same with everyone just wanting "data" to "analyze"--even if they have no idea how it might be useful.

barbazoo 2y ago

How does that work here? Say I have that toothbrush, the app, and say I had to sign up to use it. What they know is how long the toothbrush is on. How are they going to monetize that data?

flerchin 2y ago
I'd always thought that it was about any other data they can slurp from your phone. Presumably knowing your hygiene habits is valuable when correlated with your facebook activty. Just having a list of people that overspend on this type of tech and have the app installed is probably valuable. tl;dr IDK but they don't do it without a profit motive.
lofaszvanitt 2y ago
Like if the average user uses it for 15 seconds, it might signal them that the existing brushes need to be wider/longer/arced, so users can clean their teeth efficiently in that timeframe. And yeah, the usual electric toothbrushes are terrible slow since the brush heads are in the size of one teeth, instead of 3-4.
willcipriano 2y ago
You know the underpants gnomes, it's like that: Step 1: collect data Step 2: ??? Step 3: Profit Hopefully you sell the company between Step 1 and 2.
wholinator2 2y ago
Well, say the app requests access to your contacts... so you can link up with friends! Or your files... so it can save your data locally! Or your location... well i don't know. The app doesn't only check your bruhing habits, it's 300mb! At any point it could be updated to do any amount of spying and you'll never be able to tell
- Bluestein 2y ago
  > link up with friends! Competitive brushing!

winternett 2y ago

The extra code might there to determine your spending habits across other apps and your bank balance and then to determine where you're located so that it can provide information on regional affluence so they can price toothpaste & brushes higher in strategic regions... That's just an example guess, but the bloat is there for a purpose... I'm pretty sure the app gets updated on intervals too, just like so many others under the guise of "security or functional updates". We're in an era where data is weaponized for profit maximization... The most simple and seemingly benign data sets when combined strategically can work against consumers deeply. We need app audit boards now, maybe even on a government level, and specific detail of everything apps do to be displayed in app stores. There should be serious consequences if apps are found to do things that are not detailed in their release/update descriptions. This collected data can persist forever, and be used in some of the most destructive ways. Device/OS makers also need to do better at preventing/partitioning non-essential apps from collecting data they don't need access to... Likely reasons why this isn't already in place is because most don't know how it happens, and many others are invested in these companies, so they turn a blind eye on regulation of them.

ragnese 2y ago
To be fair, all of that tracking and data collection would still never add up to some 100MB. It's more likely that they have extremely unoptimized assets (images, icons, fonts, time zone data, sounds, etc) and/or are using one of these janky "frameworks" that let you slap together a half-baked "native" app in a few hours by translating your poorly-written JavaScript into poorly-written native code.
- vorticalbox 2y ago
  From the x thread 80% of the size is pdfs of their toothbrush products.
  - ragnese 2y ago
    Makes sense. I don't have an X account, so I can only see the linked post (AFAIK).