U ovom članku ćemo govoriti o nosivim uređajima i privatnosti. Po mom mišljenju, ovo je jako nedovoljno zastupljena tema, s eksponencijalno rastućom važnosti u današnjem tehnološkom krajoliku. Novi^(New) uređaji lansiraju se gotovo svaki tjedan na Kickstarteru^{(Kickstarter)} i IndieGoGou^(IndieGoGo) , a kao vrhunac, u rujnu 2014.^{(September 2014)} Apple i^(Apple) Intel najavili^(Intel) su svoje prve važne korake na tržištu nosivih uređaja. Prije nego počnete koristiti nosivi uređaj, evo čemu se izlažete u pogledu privatnosti podataka.

Perspektiva obične osobe

Kao dio mojih najnovijih projekata koji koriste nosive uređaje, razgovaram s američkim potrošačima o njihovoj svijesti i zabrinutostima u vezi s najnovijim gadgetima. Gotovo svaki put čujem da su zabrinuti kako bi se mogli iskoristiti podaci s njihovih nosivih uređaja. Dopustite mi da vam dam nekoliko citata:

• Alex: "Ovih dana se odričete osobnih podataka za svaku novu preuzetu aplikaciju."
• Jacob: "Nisam znao da proizvođači uređaja posjeduju moje podatke. To se čini kao zadiranje u privatnost."
• Gregory: "Nerado dijelim svoje osobne podatke s nekim tko me ne poznaje."
• Michael: "Smeta me što moje zdravstvene podatke ne kontroliram u potpunosti."

Pa zašto su ti ljudi zabrinuti? Kao prvo, strastveni korisnici tehnologije upoznati su s frazom: "Ako nešto ne plaćate, niste kupac, vi ste proizvod koji se prodaje". U početku je ovdje^(here) skovan, ali danas se suočavamo s potpuno novim modelom. Ne samo da plaćamo te uređaje, već se podaci izvučeni iz njih anonimiziraju, agregiraju i prodaju trećim stranama koje su spremne i mogu iz njih izvući uvide. U nekim kontekstima, podaci se koriste za pokretanje korporativnih wellness programa u velikim korporacijama kao što je British Petroleum. Za mene ovo uopće nije iznenađujuće. Svjesno odlučujem dijeliti svoje podatke s proizvođačem uređaja radi nekih pogodnosti kao što su analiza spavanja ili dugoročne mogućnosti izvješćivanja s mojim podacima. Ali ja sam iskusan korisnik, koji se jako bavi kvantificiranim samopokretom i sposoban je izvući dobar dio koristi iz mjerenja. Glavno pitanje ovdje je, međutim, isplati li se prosječnom čovjeku?

Što je politika privatnosti?

"Politika privatnosti je izjava ili pravni dokument (zakon o privatnosti) koji otkriva neke ili sve načine na koje strana prikuplja, koristi, otkriva i upravlja podacima kupca ili klijenta." (izvor: Wikipedia ). Trenutno nosim 7 fitness trackera, svaki sa svojom politikom privatnosti:

• Pebble Steel Watch , evo Pravila o privatnosti^{(Privacy Policy)} .

• Basis Carbon Steel B1 Watch , evo Pravila o privatnosti^{(Privacy Policy)} .

• FitBit Flex , evo Pravila privatnosti^{(Privacy Policy)} .

• Nike Fuelband , evo Pravila privatnosti^{(Privacy Policy)} .

• BodyMedia , evo Pravila privatnosti^{(Privacy Policy)} .

• Jawbone UP , ovdje su Pravila privatnosti^{(Privacy Policy)} .

• Misfit Shine , evo Pravila privatnosti^{(Privacy Policy)} .

Zašto to radim? Pa^(Well) za više namjena. Jedan je za mogućnost eksperimentiranja s razlikama u podacima između njih (da, nemojte se ponašati iznenađeni — većinu vremena neće dati iste rezultate). Drugi je bolje razumjeti koje su prednosti i nedostatci svakog od njih, na sebi. Pregledao sam pravila o privatnosti za sve ove uređaje. Da vidimo što sam saznao:

Uobičajene teme koje sam pronašao

Uobičajene teme među svim pravilima o privatnosti su negdje u sljedećim crtama: Vaši su podaci u njihovom vlasništvu^{(Your data is owned by them)} . Iznenađujuće, samo BodyMedia zapravo ima muda da to kaže unaprijed (naravno, zakopano negdje na legalnom jeziku): "Svi prikupljeni podaci uključujući, ali ne ograničavajući se na, zapise hrane, težinu, postotak tjelesne masti, senzor- podaci, zapisi vremena i fiziološki podaci (zajedno, "Podaci"), jesu i ostat će jedino i isključivo vlasništvo BodyMedia" . Međutim, svi uređaji svoje podatke prvo sinkroniziraju s uslugama proizvođača, a zatim s aplikacijom za vaš mobilni telefon. To osigurava dvije stvari:

1. Oni vide podatke prije nego itko drugi.
2. Ne možete izravno dohvatiti podatke s uređaja bez prolaska kroz njih.

Zapravo, 2. točka nije sasvim točna. Bilo je različitih pokušaja oslobađanja podataka s ovih uređaja i izravnog pristupa, kao što je libfitbit^(libfitbit) . Međutim, nije ih jednostavno koristiti kao ne-programer, a za ljude koji iznimno paze na svoju privatnost, to čini uređaje ne-ne. If forced by a warrant or by business interests (M&A / bankruptcy / trade secrets protection), they will share your data with third parties.To zapravo znači da se neće toliko boriti ako dobiju sudski nalog FISA -e za predaju vaših podataka, a vi dobijete ovo upozorenje unaprijed. Mislim da je ovo iskreno, jer, da se razumijemo, kao poduzeće, ne možete učiniti puno u borbi protiv vladinih politika, čak i ako se s nekima od njih ne slažete.Oni će dijeliti agregirane, anonimizirane podatke s trećim stranama u svrhu istraživanja tržišta i istraživanja. ^{(They will share aggregated, anonymized data with third parties for market research and research purposes.)}Imajte na umu da 5 od 7 čak koristi riječ "prodaja" u rečenicama koje se odnose na dijeljenje podataka. To dolazi u dvije vrste: ili "ne prodajemo osobne podatke prikupljene od vas" ili " ACME Inc. može prodavati anonimizirane podatke trećim stranama". Kako bi ti podaci mogli biti korisni trgovcima? Pročitajte^(Read) u nastavku u posebnom odjeljku kako biste saznali. Zatim ću istaknuti neke pojedinosti za politiku privatnosti svakog dobavljača koji su mi se činili zanimljivi.

Pravila privatnosti^(Privacy) koje koriste Jawbone UP & Nike & Misfit

^{(Jawbone UP)}Najviše su razočarali Jawbone UP , Nike Fuelband i Misfit Shine . Imaju opća pravila privatnosti koja ne spominju podatke o nosivim uređajima ni na koji način. Imaju sav jezik za praćenje kolačića i "web beacons" (piksele za praćenje), ali ništa nije povezano sa samim podacima. Kontaktirao sam sve 3 tvrtke na Twitteru^(Twitter) i ažurirat ću ovaj članak ako dobijem nešto vrijedno. Imajte na umu da čak i ako nisam uspio pronaći ispravnu Politiku privatnosti^{(Privacy Policy)}na njihovoj web stranici još uvijek je zabrinjavajuće da računalni programer s 8 godina iskustva to ne može učiniti u razumnom vremenu. Ono što je još zanimljivije je da sve tri tvrtke imaju automatizirane načine na koje programeri mogu povući vaše podatke, naravno uz vaše odobrenje. U programerskom jeziku, to je ono što zovemo API ( Aplikacijsko programsko sučelje^{(Application Programming Interface)} ). Dakle, postoje ljudi koji razvijaju aplikacije povrh mojih podataka, ali ne mogu lako pronaći kako se moji podaci pohranjuju i obrađuju, barem od strane proizvođača uređaja. Jao.

Šljunak - pozitivan primjer

Najviše mi se sviđa Pebbleova^(Pebble) politika privatnosti. Sadrži jednostavan sažetak na vrhu, namijenjen da vam pruži brzi pregled pravnog jezika koji slijedi. Međutim, čitajući ga, nisam vidio nikakve reference na biometrijske podatke koje je prikupio Pebble . Da, Pebble ima akcelerometar^{(Pebble has an accelerometer)} i u njihovoj trgovini postoji hrpa aplikacija koje ga koriste za praćenje fitnessa i spavanja. Ali službena aplikacija ima samo funkcije produktivnosti kao što su obavijesti. To ih stavlja u slatku točku delegiranja odgovornosti za biometrijske podatke na programere aplikacija treće strane i njihove vlastite politike privatnosti.

BodyMedia i njihova pravila privatnosti

Ono što mi se sviđa kod BodyMedia je to što su otvoreni prema svojim korisnicima: "Sustav koristi monitor aktivnosti narukvice koji bilježi "podatke o narukvici". Možete isključiti snimanje podataka o narukvicama u bilo kojem trenutku, za bilo koje vremensko razdoblje , ne nošenjem trake oko ruke." Dakle, ili ćete pronaći dovoljno dobru korist u korištenju našeg uređaja, tako da ste voljni podijeliti svoje podatke s nama, ili ne i mi zapravo ne želimo gubiti vrijeme jedni drugima. To se također može vidjeti u njihovoj strategiji cijena, budući da su oni jedini na tržištu koji vam naplaćuju (7 USD mjesečno, nakon prvih 6 mjeseci besplatno) da vidite svoje podatke na njihovoj nadzornoj ploči. Otkrio sam da se puno ljudi (čak i iz SAD-a) ne slaže s ovim, čak i ako je to vrlo mala cijena. Po mom mišljenju,BodyMedia je mršavljenje i održavanje težine. I tako se plasiraju na naslovnoj stranici. Za mene je to dovoljno vrijedno da bih s njima podijelio svoje podatke. Ima veliki utjecaj na moj svakodnevni život. Oni su također jedini koji napominju da bi moglo doći do situacija u kojima ćete pristati podijeliti svoje podatke s trećom stranom, zbog pogodnosti, recimo, besplatnog primanja uređaja. To se događa u stvarnom životu, u nekim tvrtkama koje s tim uređajima izvode korporativne wellness programe.

Osnova i njihova politika privatnosti

Zanimljivo mi je da Basis stalno inzistira da ne povezuju vaše biometrijske podatke s tim tko ste, o čemu pričate ili gdje se nalazite. Osobno mi je mnogo jezivije da netko zna moje obrasce spavanja nego da zna gdje sam. Osim toga^(Besides) , mobilni telefonski tornjevi, tvrtka za mobitele, a time i vlada, već znaju gdje sam. Tako da nemam nikakvih problema s tim. Istinita^(True) priča s Basisom^(Basis) : kad sam dobivao američku vizu i tek ulazio u veleposlanstvo u Bukureštu^(Bucharest) na razgovor, stražari su mi očito rekli da ostavim svoje stvari i elektroničke uređaje na ulazu. Bio sam znatiželjan hoće li me pustiti sa satom B1 — ali onda su me pitali: „Je li toBluetooth enabled?". I grinned and took it out.

Fitbit Flex & Their Privacy Policy

Fitbit is the champion in terms of the number of units sold and I paid quite a bit of attention to their privacy policy. What shines about their privacy policy is the enumeration of the interactions with them and what data gets recorded in each case: when you sign up, when you sync your data, etc. I would say that is also due to their extensive penetration in the corporate world and the need to be more transparent with their data policies when making big deals like that.

What About Third Party Apps?

Što s njima? Ne možete stvarno kontrolirati što rade s vašim podacima, budući da je većina razvojnih shopova iza njih samostalni show (ili dobro, tim od nekoliko osoba koji radi u pidžamama :D). Da, oni su odgovorni za zaštitu vaših podataka, ali vjerojatno to neće biti prioritet broj jedan na njihovom popisu. To je i dobra i loša stvar. To je dobro jer se usredotočuju na to da ti podaci budu korisni. Znate, industrija nosivih uređaja ima veliki problem zadržavanja. Prema izvješću Endeavour Partners^{(Endeavour Partners report)} iz siječnja 2014.^{(January 2014)} ("Inside Wearables: How the Science of Human Behavior Change Offers the Secret to Long-Term Engagementod kojih svi imaju ugrađene obavijesti). Po mom mišljenju, ovo su samo strategije da ih zadržite na tijelu još malo, dok ne shvatešto stvarno učiniti sa svojim biometrijskim podacima^{(what to really do with your biometrics data)} . Ali svi u ovoj predstavi gotovo potpuno ignoriraju aplikacije trećih strana. Oni su ključni za dugoročno zadržavanje koje proizvođači uređaja žele od nas. Oni su ključni za pronalaženje uvida u podatke koji su dovoljno dobri da nam budu od koristi. Znate, tvrtke za proizvodnju uređaja imaju ograničenu propusnost i nedavni val akvizicija pokazao je da nije održivo učiniti sve. Ipak, mi, kao potrošači, vrlo smo skeptični prema dijeljenju naših podataka s njima. Mislim da je u ovom trenutku dijeljenje vaših podataka isto kao i dijeljenje vaše poslovne ideje: neki će se ljudi bojati podijeliti ih, ali ne shvaćaju da većina drugih ljudi uopće nije zainteresirana (ili nemaju vremena) da to pogledamo na prvom mjestu.

Kako bi trgovci mogli koristiti agregirane podatke o nosivim uređajima^{(Wearables Data)} ?

Iznad^(Above) smo spomenuli da većina pravila o privatnosti spominje agregirane podatke koji se trgovcima prodaju u agregiranom obliku. Pitate li se još uvijek kako bi podaci mogli biti korisni trgovcima? Jawbone nam je u ^(Jawbone)seriji izvještaja o spavanju^{(series of reports on sleep)} počeo davati prve naznake o tome . Nekoliko očitih slučajeva upotrebe kojih se mogu sjetiti su:

• Upotrijebite podatke da biste saznali koji demografski podaci trebaju tablete za spavanje (ili srodne proizvode) više. Zatim kreirajte kampanje za njih.
• Koristite podatke da odredite kada je učinkovitije da im proizvođači sadržaja isporuče neki relevantan dio sadržaja. Pretpostavljam da vlasnici TV emisija nikada nisu znali gledam li stvarno njihovu emisiju ili samo drijemam. Sada još uvijek neće znati, ali barem će dobiti prilično dobru ideju sa statističke točke gledišta.
• Saznajte^(Find) koje su demografske kategorije aktivnije i pokažite im više oglasa povezanih sa sportskim proizvodima (na primjer, proteinski napitci).

Međutim, ovi slučajevi upotrebe očito trebaju stalan protok podataka u sustave proizvođača uređaja. A podatke s prazninama i nedosljednostima je vrlo teško obraditi, vjerujte mi. Ali bez nekih dobrih pravila o privatnosti koja bi uvjerila krajnje korisnike da više vjeruju proizvođačima uređaja i jake podrške programerima aplikacija trećih strana s obje strane, ne vidim da će se ovo pokrenuti. A tužan dio je da nosivi uređaji mogu imati ogroman utjecaj na vaš život.

Zaključci

Kao prvo^(First) , mislim da je situacija s podacima o nosivim uređajima u ovom trenutku prilično zapetljana. Vidim zabrinutost na svim razinama, počevši od stvarnih potrošača koje sam intervjuirao do velikih tvrtki. Međutim, proći će neko vrijeme dok se to ne riješi, a to je vjerojatno razlog za Appleovo ^(Apple)zdravlje^(Health)aplikacija i temeljna pohrana podataka koju je odobrila vlada. Slične inicijative možemo vidjeti i od drugih igrača. Mislim da se većina proizvođača uređaja trenutno bori s gorućim problemima i za to postoji dovoljno dokaza. Nedostatak dugotrajnijeg angažmana sprječava ih da pravilno unovče podatke koje prikupljaju, a time i da imaju održiv poslovni model. Što, mislili ste da će marža od prodaje hardverskog uređaja biti dovoljna da ih zadrži u poslu? Možda, ali vjerojatno samo za one high-end kao što su MotoX ili Apple Watch. Moja posljednja točka je da ih puno potrošača kupuje ili ih želi koristiti jer ih vide uokolo, koriste ih prijatelji ili suradnici, ali zapravo ne razumiju njihovu korist. Iako je to bilo dovoljno za usvajanje pametnih telefona, to je bilo zato što je pametni telefon također bio telefon. Ali ovi uređaji imaju neviđenu funkcionalnost za koju nitko nije siguran da je korisna. Ako ne vide prednosti, potrošači se usredotočuju na privatnost umjesto na funkcionalnost. Po mom mišljenju, to je jako loš znak za proizvod. Svi znamo da GMail dijeli naše podatke s vladom, ali funkcionalnost je toliko dobra da većina nas još uvijek vidi dodatnu prednost u njenom korištenju.

What Is The Wearables Industry Doing With The Data From Your Gadgets?

In this article, wе arе going to tаlk about wearаble dеvices and privacy. In my opinion, this is a heavily underrеpresented topіc, wіth exponentially growing importance in today's technology landscape. New devices are launching almost еvery week on Kickstarter and IndieGoGo and to top that off, in Seрtember 2014, Apple and Intel both announced their first important steps in the wearables market. Before yoυ start using a wearable device, here's whаt yoυ еxpoѕе уourself to in terms of data privacy.

A Regular Person's Perspective

As part of my newest projects using wearables, I am talking to US consumers about their awareness and concerns with the latest gadgets. Almost every time, I hear that they are worried about how the data from their wearables might be used. Let me give you a few quotes:

• Alex: "These days, you give up personal information for each new downloaded app."
• Jacob: "I did not know that the device makers own my data. That feels like an invasion of privacy."
• Gregory: "I am reluctant to share my personal information with someone who does not know me."
• Michael: "It bothers me that my health info is not fully controlled by me."

So why are these people concerned? For one thing, avid technology users are familiar with the phrase: "If you're not paying for something, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold". It was initially coined here but today we are facing a whole new model. Not only are we paying for these devices, but the data extracted from them is being anonymized, aggregated and sold to third parties who are willing to and able to extract insights from it. In some contexts, the data is being used to power corporate wellness programs in huge corporations like British Petroleum. To me, this isn't surprising at all. I consciously make a choice to share my data with the device maker for some benefits like sleep analysis, or longer term reporting capabilities with my data. But I am a power user, who is very much into the quantified self movement and is able to derive a good chunk of benefit out of getting the measurements. The main question here is, however, is it worth it for the average person?

What Is A Privacy Policy?

"A privacy policy is a statement or a legal document (privacy law) that discloses some or all of the ways a party gathers, uses, discloses and manages a customer or client's data." (source: Wikipedia). I currently wear 7 fitness trackers, each with its own privacy policy:

• Pebble Steel Watch, here's the Privacy Policy.

• Basis Carbon Steel B1 Watch, here's the Privacy Policy.

• FitBit Flex, here's the Privacy Policy.

• Nike Fuelband, here's the Privacy Policy.

• BodyMedia, here's the Privacy Policy.

• Jawbone UP, here's the Privacy Policy.

• Misfit Shine, here's the Privacy Policy.

Why do I do that? Well, for multiple purposes. One is for to able to experiment with data differences between them (yes, don't act surprised — most of the time they will not give the same results). Another is to understand better which are the pros and cons for each of them, on myself. I have reviewed the privacy policies for all of these devices. Let's see what I found out:

The Common Themes I Have Found

The common themes among all the privacy policies are somewhere along the following lines: Your data is owned by them. Surprisingly enough, only BodyMedia actually has the balls to state this up-front (buried somewhere in legalese, of course): "All data collected including, but not limited to, food-logs, weight, body-fat-percentage, sensor-data, time recordings, and physiological data (collectively, the "Data"), are and shall remain the sole and exclusive property of BodyMedia". However, all devices sync their data to the maker's services first, and then to your mobile phone application. This ensures two things:

1. They see the data before anyone else does.
2. You cannot directly fetch the data from the device without going through them.

Actually, the 2nd point is not entirely accurate. There have been disparate attempts at liberating the data from these devices and accessing it directly, such as libfitbit. However, they are not easy to use as a non-programmer, and for people who are extremely careful about their privacy, this makes the devices a no-no. If forced by a warrant or by business interests (M&A / bankruptcy / trade secrets protection), they will share your data with third parties. This means that effectively, they will not fight that hard if they get a FISA court order to surrender your data, and you get this warning up-front. I think this is honest, because, let's face it, as a business, you can't do much to fight the government's policies, even if you disagree with some of them. They will share aggregated, anonymized data with third parties for market research and research purposes. Note that 5 of 7 even use the word "sell" in sentences related to data sharing. That comes into 2 flavours: either "we do not sell personally identifiable data collected from you" or "ACME Inc. can sell anonymized data to third parties". How in the world could this data be useful to marketers? Read below in the dedicated section to find out. Next, I will highlight some specifics for each vendor's privacy policy that seemed interesting to me.

The Privacy Policies Used By Jawbone UP & Nike & Misfit

Jawbone UP, Nike Fuelband and Misfit Shine were the most disappointing. They have general privacy policies that do not mention wearables data in any specific way. They have all the cookie tracking and "web beacons" (tracking pixels) language, but nothing related to the data itself. I have reached out to all 3 companies on Twitter and will update this article if I receive something of value. Note that even if I did not manage to find the correct Privacy Policy on their website, it's still worrisome that a computer programmer with 8 years of experience cannot do that in a reasonable amount of time. What's even more interesting, is that all three companies have automated ways for developers to pull in your data, with your approval, of course. In programmer parlance, this is what we call an API (Application Programming Interface). So there are people out there developing apps on top of my data, but I cannot easily find how my data is being stored and processed, at least by the device maker. Ouch.

Pebble - A Positive Example

I like Pebble's privacy policy the best. It contains a simple summary at the top, meant to get you a quick overview of the legalese that is to follow. However, reading it I saw no reference to biometric data collected by the Pebble. Yes, Pebble has an accelerometer and there are a bunch of applications using it for fitness and sleep tracking in their store. But the official application only has productivity functions such as notifications. This puts them in the sweet spot of delegating responsibility for the biometrics data to the third party application developers and their own privacy policies.

BodyMedia & Their Privacy Policy

The thing I like about BodyMedia is that they are upfront with their users: "The system uses an armband activity-monitor which records "armband data". You may opt-out of armband-data recording at any time, for any period of time, by not wearing the armband." So either you find a good enough benefit in using our device, so that you are willing to share your data with us, or you don't and we don't really want to waste each other's time. This can also be seen in their pricing strategy, since they are the only ones on the market that charge you ($7 per month, after the first 6 months for free) to see your data in their dashboard. I found that a lot of people (even from the US) disagreed with this, even if it's a very small price. In my opinion, the best use-case for the BodyMedia is weight loss and weight maintenance. And that is how they market themselves on the front page. To me, that is valuable enough that I would share my data with them. It has a major impact in my day to day life. They are also the only one to mention that there might be situations where you will agree to share your data with a third party, for a perk of, say, receiving the device for free. This happens in real life, in some companies that are running corporate wellness programs with these devices.

Basis & Their Privacy Policy

I find it interesting that Basis keep insisting that they do not correlate your biometrics data with who you are, what you are talking about or where you are. I personally find it much creepier for someone to know my sleep patterns than to know where I am. Besides, the cell phone towers, the cell phone company and thus the government already know where I am. So I don't have any issue with that. True story with Basis: when I was getting my US visa, and just entering the embassy in Bucharest for the interview, the guards obviously told me to leave my belongings and electronic devices at the entrance. I was curious if they would let me through with the B1 watch — but then they asked: "Is that thing Bluetooth enabled?". I grinned and took it out.

Fitbit Flex & Their Privacy Policy

Fitbit is the champion in terms of the number of units sold and I paid quite a bit of attention to their privacy policy. What shines about their privacy policy is the enumeration of the interactions with them and what data gets recorded in each case: when you sign up, when you sync your data, etc. I would say that is also due to their extensive penetration in the corporate world and the need to be more transparent with their data policies when making big deals like that.

What About Third Party Apps?

What about them? You cannot really control what they do with your data, since most development shops behind them are a one-man show (or well, a several-person team working in their pajamas :D). Yes, they are responsible for the safeguarding of your data, but probably that will not be the number one priority on their list. That's both a good thing, and a bad thing. It's good because they are focusing on making that data useful to you. You know, the wearables industry has a huge retention problem. According to a Endeavour Partners report from January 2014 ("Inside Wearables: How the Science of Human Behavior Change Offers the Secret to Long-Term Engagement"), at least 50% of people stop using an activity tracker completely after no more than 18 months. And that does not take into account that most people only use them occasionally (for example, only to measure their workouts). It's bad because we are all concerned about who receives our personal information and how safe it is there. To be honest, at this point in time, you would have to go naked to a secluded island and hide in a cave to stop data collection for yourself. It's really really hard, and I'm not sure if the benefit is worth it for the average person. Getting back to the engagement problem: this has prompted the device makers to respond in a very interesting way. Most have shifted towards fashion (the only objects you wear on your body that have no function) and productivity (the new wave of smart watches, all of which have built in notifications). In my opinion, these are just strategies to keep them on your body just a little longer, until they figure out what to really do with your biometrics data. But everyone is ignoring third party apps almost completely in this play. They are essential to the long term retention that the device makers want from us. They are essential for finding insights in the data that are good enough to benefit us. You know, the device maker companies have limited bandwidth and the recent wave of acquisitions has shown that it's not sustainable to do it all. Yet, us, as consumers, are very skeptical of sharing our data with them. I think that at this point, sharing your data is just like sharing your business idea: some people will be afraid to share it, but they don't realise that most other people are not even interested (or don't have the time) to look at it in the first place.

How Could Marketers Use Aggregated Wearables Data?

Above, we mentioned that most of the privacy policies mention aggregated data being sold to marketers in an aggregated form. Are you still wondering how the data might be useful to marketers? Jawbone started to give us the first hints about that in its series of reports on sleep. A few obvious use-cases that I can think of are:

• Use the data to know which demographics need sleeping pills (or related products) more. Then create campaigns for them.
• Use the data to determine when it is more effective for content producers to deliver some relevant piece of content to them. I guess TV show owners never knew if I was really watching their show or just dozing off. Now they still won't know, but at least they will get a pretty good idea from a statistical point of view.
• Find out which demographics are more active, and show them more ads related to sports products (for example, protein shakes).

However, these use-cases clearly need a constant flow of data into the systems of the device makers. And data with gaps and inconsistencies is very hard to process, trust me. But without some good privacy policies that would convince the end-users to trust the device makers more and some strong support for the 3rd party app developers from both sides, I do not see this taking off the ground. And the sad part is that wearables can have a huge impact on your life.

Conclusions

First off, I think the situation of the wearables data is quite tangled at this point. I see concern at all levels, starting from the actual consumers that I interviewed and ending with big companies. However, it will take a while until this gets sorted out, and this is probably the reason for Apple's Health application and underlying government-approved data storage. We can see similar initiatives from other players as well. I think that most device makers are struggling with more pressing issues right now and there is ample evidence for that. Lack of longer term engagement is preventing them from properly monetizing the data they are collecting and thus from having a sustainable business model. What, you thought that the margin from selling the hardware device will be enough to keep them in the business? Maybe, but probably only for the high-end ones such as the MotoX or Apple Watch. My last point is that a lot of consumers are buying them or want to use them because they see them around, being used by friends or coworkers, but they do not really understand their benefit. While this was enough to drive smartphone adoption, that was because the smartphone was also a phone. But these devices have an unprecedented functionality, that nobody is really sure is useful. Failing to see the benefits makes consumers concentrate on privacy instead of functionality. In my opinion, that is a very bad sign for a product. We all know GMail is sharing our data with the government, but the functionality is so good that most of us still see an added benefit to using it.

Related posts

• Kako su mi Samsungova pametna rješenja pomogla u borbi protiv alergija -

• Kako održati aktivan stil života uz Samsung Health ekosustav

• 5 načina da poboljšate svoje zdravlje uz ASUS VivoWatch 5 -

• 6 najboljih besplatnih Android aplikacija za prestanak pušenja

• Stvarne strategije za bilježenje unosa hrane

• Workrave je besplatni softver za kontrolu vremena na računalu

• Opasnosti po zdravlje mobilnih telefona, rizici i opasnosti

• Što je Cybersickness ili VR bolest? Simptomi Mjere opreza Liječenje

• Xiaomi Mi Band 6, Mi Watch Lite ili Mi Watch: koji je pravi za vas?

• Softver za podsjetnike na pauze FadeTop može vam pomoći da napravite stanke na računalu

• Spriječite ozljede od ponavljajućeg naprezanja korištenjem Big Stretch Reminder na vašem računalu

• Besplatna aplikacija za ispitivanje sluha i softver za testiranje uha za Windows 10 PC

• Besplatni softver za praćenje i provjeru zdravlja tvrdog diska za potencijalni kvar

• IsMyHdOK je besplatni softver za provjeru ispravnosti tvrdog diska za Windows 10

• Kako provjeriti može li vaše računalo pokrenuti Windows 11 alat za provjeru zdravlja računala

• Vježbe za korisnike računala i uredske radnike - Nerd Fitness

• 10 najboljih namirnica da ostanete aktivni i energični u uredu

• Popis mobitela s najvećim i najmanjim emisijama

• Odmorite oči od računala uz Pause4Relax

• Prednosti uzimanja Digital Detoxa i kako to učiniti