From Fitbits To Rokus, Hedge Funds Mine Data For Consumer Habits (bloomberg.com) 60
In an effort to gain an elusive trading edge, some of the world's biggest hedge funds have been snapping up large swaths of alternative data from Fitbits, Rokus, Teslas and employment websites like Glassdoor. Bloomberg reports: Spotting trends and patterns in consumer habits is big business, part of a global market for big data, that a JPMorgan Chase report said could reach more than $200 billion by next year. Still, there's no guarantee all that information will lead to riches. It needs to be scrubbed, organized and aggregated to be of any use. WiFi and Bluetooth connections have become so ubiquitous they're often taken for granted. But hedge funds have become keenly interested in tracking devices that connect to the internet.
Capturing signals they emit can show "when and where new things appear in the world,"; said Hugh O'Connor, director of data sourcing and partnerships at Eagle Alpha, which gathers alternative data for the finance industry. Firms can keep tabs on the number of Roku video-streaming devices or Fitbit fitness trackers being used, the length of time consumers spend on them and their approximate locations. Similarly, if you buy a Tesla Model 3 car and use its Bluetooth-enabled media, a data provider can capture when your new ride is hitting the road. There's been "incredible demand" from some of the world's largest asset managers for this type of information. Hedge funds are also pulling data from mobile phones as they can reveal, in real time, the number of people carrying devices at a particular location. "This can shed light on how many -- or few -- people are frequenting a retailer, supermarket or fast-food joint," the report says. They're also scraping the web to create bespoke collections of public data. "Some examples include pricing trends on airline flights or hotels, inventory figures for products offered on coupon website Groupon, or sales posted for merchandise on Amazon.com," reports Bloomberg.
Additionally, social media sites and credit card data help shed some light on what consumers are thinking. Employment data is also very insightful. "If a tech giant suddenly starts seeking talent from the health-care industry, for example, that could suggest it has a new product or service in the works," reports Bloomberg. "A spike in the removal of job postings from a company's website could signal corporate distress."
Capturing signals they emit can show "when and where new things appear in the world,"; said Hugh O'Connor, director of data sourcing and partnerships at Eagle Alpha, which gathers alternative data for the finance industry. Firms can keep tabs on the number of Roku video-streaming devices or Fitbit fitness trackers being used, the length of time consumers spend on them and their approximate locations. Similarly, if you buy a Tesla Model 3 car and use its Bluetooth-enabled media, a data provider can capture when your new ride is hitting the road. There's been "incredible demand" from some of the world's largest asset managers for this type of information. Hedge funds are also pulling data from mobile phones as they can reveal, in real time, the number of people carrying devices at a particular location. "This can shed light on how many -- or few -- people are frequenting a retailer, supermarket or fast-food joint," the report says. They're also scraping the web to create bespoke collections of public data. "Some examples include pricing trends on airline flights or hotels, inventory figures for products offered on coupon website Groupon, or sales posted for merchandise on Amazon.com," reports Bloomberg.
Additionally, social media sites and credit card data help shed some light on what consumers are thinking. Employment data is also very insightful. "If a tech giant suddenly starts seeking talent from the health-care industry, for example, that could suggest it has a new product or service in the works," reports Bloomberg. "A spike in the removal of job postings from a company's website could signal corporate distress."
So whatâ(TM)s the problem? (Score:2, Funny)
I understand that people are worried about this stuff, but if this data leads to better products that people want whatâ(TM)s the issue?
Re:So whatâ(TM)s the problem? (Score:5, Insightful)
I understand that people are worried about this stuff, but if this data leads to better products that people want whatâ(TM)s the issue?
Because that's not what's happening. These are WALL STREET hedge funds: not engineering companies.
They are looking for an edge in their TRADING. They don't give a shit about these products or the consumer. They are just trying to find out which company is going to have gangbuster earnings or the opposite so they can trade accordingly and achieve returns that are better than the market overall to justify their obscene compensation.
See, by data mining, they'll get an idea of a company's or industry's performance before others do; thereby beating them to the profits.
This technology is being used against us. Whether it's using our desires against us to get us to buy more useless crap (like FitBits) or swaying elections with ad campaigns (Cambridge Analytica). I bet these hedge will want to damage Elizabeth Warren as much as possible.
And I find it horribly disgusting that yesterday, the warning about Russian meddling in our elections was ignored. Election security is continually being shot down by Mitch McConnell. That is an act of a traitor. To put a foreign power's interests above this country just because they got "your guy" in office is just deplorable.
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Just wait until people start seeing the consequences of this:
* You don't know what parallel construction is? You will. That trip to the MJ street corner got logged by your carrier, and now the local PD is saying that they had a surveillance team watching you all the time, with true eye witness accounts, honest Injun, which gave them the probable cause for a search warrant.
* With all the extradition treaties, someone who buys a pork sandwitch in the US can, in theory, be arrested and sent to Pakistan or
If recording you having a shower... (Score:5, Insightful)
... without your permission would allow better soap to be created and sold to you, would you be up for it? No, didn't think so.
Re:If recording you having a shower... (Score:4, Funny)
That's a slippery soap
Audio of people fucking... (Score:2)
Re: Audio of people fucking... (Score:1)
If you're calling out, "Hey Google", or, "Alexa", (unless your partner is named Google or Alexa), you're doing it wrong.
Re:So what's the problem? (Score:1)
You just said you understood. Do you care about people you don't know peeping in your window? Measuring your sleep breathing? Monitoring your eyes as you watch TV? Reading your correspondence? These things are here or in development. It has nothing to do with better products. It's just plain old sleazy spying for profit. Technology has provided something that unethical opportunists are grabbing.
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Aside from the massive security/privacy holes this opens, the other main problem is that corporations are using their consumers as a free labour force. If a company wants to make a better product, then they need to PAY people to do their QA for them.
For example, if Microsoft were ethical and paid everyone at least minimum wage for running Windows 10 with its built-in spyware, then I'd have less of an issue with them. I would never work/give data over to any company to make them richer without getting a fair
Brain-drain and marketing. (Score:1)
So basically we need to cut out the middle-man and have everyone tap into our brains?
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So basically we need to cut out the middle-man and have everyone tap into our brains?
Funny you should mention that, Elon is working on it as we speak :
https://tech.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]
We're building a surveillance state (Score:5, Insightful)
We're building a surveillance state, except it's "private industry." What could go wrong? Personally, the idea that the greed Wall Street idiots who brought down the world's economy having real time access to this information is no less disconcerting than Barney Fife having it just because he's "law enforcement." The quarterly-profit-whores couldn't possibly abuse this information. At least for a "service" like Facebook, there are terms of service which its users never read. I don't remember checking a box for a greedy quant to monetize all of my life's activities.
Re: We're building a surveillance state (Score:5, Informative)
I walked into a Wendy's last night, and used their ordering panel, swiped my card, and...my name is up on a giant screen with every other customer.
Not a single prompt asking me what my name was--taken from my card, and not a single prompt asking for permission to broadcast my name to everyone else standing around.
Not cool.
Re: We're building a surveillance state (Score:4, Interesting)
An even worse example of careless "security" policy: at many places where one must interact with receptionists or other clerks behind a desk in a rather public space, such people are often tasked with first establishing your authenticity before allowing you to progress through the remainder of whatever process for which they stand as gatekeepers. They will often establish this authenticity, as part of policies created by their superiors, by asking you to verbally recite, in an open space where complete strangers can hear, specifically identifying details about yourself. It's not sufficient to be in the possession of a unique ID card, they insist on hearing you recite the data they already know loud enough for anyone else in the same room to overhear. This even occurs in Kaiser Permanente hospital facilities, of all places.
Have I succeeded in making you even more paranoid than you already were? You're welcome.
card vs cash (Score:1)
Re: card vs cash (Score:2)
The part where they gave away payment data in violation of PCI rules.
https://www.pcicomplianceguide... [pcicomplianceguide.org]
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https://www.pcisecuritystandar... [pcisecuritystandards.org]
Try reading it. They're very clear you can't just make this information available to other people, and you can't just put it out there unencrypted. Storage is permitted for some elements, not sharing with visitors.
4.1 Use strong cryptography and security protocols to safeguard sensitive cardholder data during transmission over open, public networks (e.g.Internet, wireless technologies, cellular technologies, General Packet Radio Service [GPRS], satellite communications).Ensure wireless networks transmitting cardholder data or connected to the cardholder data environment use industry best practices to implement strong encryption for authentication and transmission.
Last I checked, visible light to visitor eyeballs was still transmitting information in the open.
Requirement 7: Restrict access to cardholder data by business need-to-know
To ensure critical data can only be accessed by authorized personnel, systems and processes must be in place to limit access based on need to know and according to job responsibilities.Need to know is when access rights are granted to only the least amount of data and privileges needed to perform a job.
7.1 Limit access to system components and cardholder data to only those individuals whose job requires such access.RESTRICTING ACCESS IS CRUCIAL!
Restrict Access to Cardholder Data Environments by employing access controls
Limit access to only those individuals whose job requires such access
Formalize an access control policy that includes a list of who gets access to specif i ed cardholder data and systems
Deny all access to anyone who is not specif i cally allowed to access cardholder data and systems
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Did you even look at it? Of course you can print it on a receipt you're giving to that person.
There's a table in there that lists Name among Cardholder Data. Go look at it. Physically read it with your own eyes. Then read the requirements. You know, the lists of things you can and can't do; unlike your suggestion that they can, "do whatever they'd like with it."
You CANNOT just do whatever you want with it. You glossed over even attempting a rebuttal by the highly sophisticated method of plugging your ears a
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PCI is bullshit. Nobody cares. NOT being PCI compliant costs $25/month. Big deal.
So you just admitted that you didn't read the evidence, implied that weilawei was right, but that you simply don't care. Why did you post 3 times telling someone that they were wrong, when your actual opinion was "I don't know if you are right or wrong but I don't care. "I don't care" does not mean "You are wrong."
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B. Even if I'm wrong (and I don't think I am), it's a moot point. Our company doesn't bother with PCI compliance because answering surveys and such is not worth the hassle of a simple $25/month fee.
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A. I don't think that a person's name on the credit card is part of PCI compliance, as it can be put on the receipt, or read by any human being with eyeballs on the card.
So can the number and the CVV code, but both are part of PCI compliance. Seems clear that you still didn't read the link.
Even if I'm wrong (and I don't think I am), it's a moot point. Our company doesn't bother with PCI compliance
So because your company isn't compliant, the entire concept of compliance goes away for everyone? Genius!
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Well, the woman in front of me was Alice, and the woman before her was Mallory. (Names are, ofc, changed to protect the real people who were in front of me.)
I cannot possibly see how anyone would ever abuse that kind of information.
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Well, Wall Street certainly had a hand in tanking the world's economy by buying dodgy home loans, repackaging them, and selling them to unsuspecting buyers arguing that home loans rarely went bad. Except, these loans were made by banks who decided they needed more capital regardless of how they got it. They were aided by the mortgage repackagers who were backed by Wall Street.
The government regulators looked the other way because the Bush Administration didn't think regulation was their job. The Fed under G
Oh man... (Score:1)
Psychohistory (Score:5, Insightful)
The genesis of Asimov's psychohistory will be in some corporate data center, and we won't like the non-fictional version. It won't be used to save humanity, it will be used to further stratify and exploit it.
"Psycho" history, indeed.
Your choice (Score:1)
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All or nothing, black or white.
Also, fallactly of presumed choice. Can you NOT have a cell phone these days? A wireless tracking device that can be remotely activated? No, didn't think so.
Not even my grandmother can go without a cell phone, and lawyers are notoriously slower than the Amish to adopt technology.
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I tried to go to an Iron Maiden Concert. Tickets are via phone app only. You can't print them. So No phone = No concert.
More companies are doing this.... assuming everyone has smartphones and is willing to load their very intrusive 'app'. Like the calculator app that needs full phone access, contacts, call history, all media... etc...
Screen capture = Photo of screen + Air print = Paper ticket.
You are manufacturing a crisis.
If you use a calculator app that requires access to anything on your phone outside of the processor and screen then you sir are doing it wrong.
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Web browsers can't slurp your contracts, upload your photos, grab your GPS settings in real time, and listen to conversations around, while apps can. This is why even stuff like a basic fleshlight app demand every permission under the sun before installing. At least Android is slowly moving to an "ask before use" permissions model, rather than "all or nothing" as it was in the past.
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No, it isn't always your choice. There is so much data being mined that isn't under your direct control - for example your family's Facebook use where they take a picture of you, You might be able to stop some of it but at the risk of alienating those around you (which might lead to a less fulfilling life). You could live as a hermit, of course. It might be fulfilling for some.
There are also things in your control that get used in ways you don't expect. Anything that gets recorded electronically has a risk
Not even Slashdotters care (Score:2)
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And this is precisely why I generally don't own devices that connect to the internet ... because I am not interested in fucking hedge funds having any access to my data.
I don't trust the people who make such devices to have security, or respect my privacy - because they don't. That your data ends up in the hands of fucking hedge funds to analyze tells me if you're buying all of this connected shit, you are just freely sharing your data with the world.
Fuck that, I don't want your stupid shiny baubles.
Connected devices are pretty much made by assholes and idiots. I'll skip that, thanks.
How did you get this message out to us? You don't buy or use "connected" devices.
Guess how much information my devices share when I put them in airplane mode. Guess how much information my devices share when i remove the batteries.
Is privacy important? Of course it is. But lets not be overly dramatic. How many fitbits are there in Connecticut? How many people wearing fitbits went to Walmart last Tuesday. That kind of shit I can personally deal with. They can have it, its nothing new, its just a new mea
But I wonder (Score:2)