How Nest and FitBit Might Spy On You For Cash 93
Nerval's Lobster writes: "Forbes offers up a comforting little story about how Nest and FitBit are planning on turning user data in a multi-billion-dollar business. 'Smart-thermostat maker Nest Labs (which is being acquired by Google for $3.2 billion) has quietly built a side business managing the energy consumption of a slice of its customers on behalf of electric companies,' reads the article. 'In wearables, health tracker Fitbit is selling companies the tracking bracelets and analytics services to better manage their health care budgets, and its rival Jawbone may be preparing to do the same.' As many a wit has said over the years: If you're not paying, you're the product. But if Forbes is right, wearable-electronics companies may have discovered a sweeter deal: paying customers on one side, and companies paying for those customers' data on the other. Will most consumers actually care, though?"
FitBit and Nest (Score:2, Interesting)
Two companies whose products I will never, ever buy.
Will it matter? (Score:5, Interesting)
At that point, the ones who do care can either suck it up and wear whatever herd-management-solution you feel like telling them to, or they can pay (probably increasingly steeply) to maintain their precious little objections.
Not the same, but tangentially related... (Score:4, Interesting)
Remember folks - first hit of the crack pipe's free . . .
Might? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm already seeing ads for managers offering to sell me this information.
I'm not sure you realize that it's already being marketed, not "will be" marketed.