3 ms·

> What they know is how long the toothbrush is on. How are they going to monetize that data? "We noticed that brushing takes you X seconds longer than usual. D

> What they know is how long the toothbrush is on. How are they going to monetize that data? "We noticed that brushing takes you X seconds longer than usual. Do you want to buy new bristles for your tooth brush?" "We noticed you haven't used our tooth brush in a while. Do you want to buy our new tooth brush?" "We noticed that you started brushing your teeth earlier than usual. This probably means that you started a new job and can afford our new deluxe premium tooth brush." "We noticed that you brush your teeth later than usual. That probably means that you met with someone who you can recommend our amazing tooth brush to." "We noticed that your tooth brushing times are all over the place, so you probably had a child. Buy our new baby tooth brush." And that is just from the time you brush your teeth. However, the app also collections "Health and fitness and Device or other IDs" according to the app description: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pg.oralb.oralbapp&hl=en_US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pg.oralb.o... That means that Oral B can link that data with the data harvested from other apps or data brokers, so they probably know everything about you. Health data seems especially creepy to me. I wonder if it is possible to measure the effectiveness of an advertisement from the heart rate data. At least they can definitely tell if you brush longer after seeing their latest Oral B add on TV/YouTube/some website.

mturmon 2y ago
Yeah, regarding your first point -- the replacement brushes are also an Oral-B product, so prompting for frequent replacement of the brushes would be a way to make more money.
- mbirth 2y ago
  In my Sonicare, the brush heads have an NFC chip in them that stores the “runtime”. After xx uses an icon starts blinking on the handle and the app will tell you that the brush head needs to be replaced. But at least you’re free to ignore that and continue using it.
  - mrwizardno2 2y ago
    For now... Just wait, some bright-eyed underling will undoubtedly see this comment and then pitch their boss: "Man, oh man! I know how we can increase revenue, let's DISABLE brush heads when they hit 90 days and FORCE the user to buy a new one!" You've just doomed us all. >.< hah!
    - mbirth 2y ago
      Joke's on them. > https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38752691 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38752691
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
andrewinardeer 2y ago
I'm surprised they haven't gone down the route of TaaS (Toothbrush as a Service), where they sell a crippled device, and for a monthly fee of a few dollars, it will unlock a premium 'Ultra Fast Brush Speed' a la Tesla.
singleshot_ 2y ago
Sneak a thermometer in there and I bet you could sell me some Tylenol or NyQuil.
aequitas 2y ago
From a marketing point of view, they don't even need your data. They just recommend/spam you to buy a new brush every few weeks. Als long as they have a way to get into your attention zone, reminding you of them and to push messages for you to keep consuming.

mturmon 2y ago

Yeah, regarding your first point -- the replacement brushes are also an Oral-B product, so prompting for frequent replacement of the brushes would be a way to make more money.

mbirth 2y ago
In my Sonicare, the brush heads have an NFC chip in them that stores the “runtime”. After xx uses an icon starts blinking on the handle and the app will tell you that the brush head needs to be replaced. But at least you’re free to ignore that and continue using it.
- mrwizardno2 2y ago
  For now... Just wait, some bright-eyed underling will undoubtedly see this comment and then pitch their boss: "Man, oh man! I know how we can increase revenue, let's DISABLE brush heads when they hit 90 days and FORCE the user to buy a new one!" You've just doomed us all. >.< hah!
  - mbirth 2y ago
    Joke's on them. > https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38752691 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38752691

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

andrewinardeer 2y ago

I'm surprised they haven't gone down the route of TaaS (Toothbrush as a Service), where they sell a crippled device, and for a monthly fee of a few dollars, it will unlock a premium 'Ultra Fast Brush Speed' a la Tesla.

singleshot_ 2y ago

Sneak a thermometer in there and I bet you could sell me some Tylenol or NyQuil.

aequitas 2y ago

From a marketing point of view, they don't even need your data. They just recommend/spam you to buy a new brush every few weeks. Als long as they have a way to get into your attention zone, reminding you of them and to push messages for you to keep consuming.