Telcos Waking Up To the Value of Your Location 178
holy_calamity writes "Cell phone networks represent probably the most effective data collectors of all time: almost everyone's movements and communications are logged in some way by these firms thanks to the ubiquity of cell phones. Now they're beginning to wake up to the value of that data, as researchers mine call records to study travel and social patterns at previously unimaginable scales. Not surprisingly, some are thinking about how to monetize that data, too."
Value (Score:5, Funny)
Did someone say cheaper phone calls??
Re:Value (Score:4, Funny)
Did someone say cheaper phone calls??
Yes, cheaper phone calls are why they're doing this. And with all that extra money you'll save, I have this great bridge in Brooklyn you should really check out.
Re:"Value Added" (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"Value Added" (Score:5, Funny)
Well then, ... (Score:5, Funny)
I guess it's a good thing I don't have a cell phone. No cell phone, no tracking. No tracking, no data mining.
About the best the marketers know about me is from my grocery shopping card, though what they glean from my buying a 5 lb. tub of Crisco, two 48-count packs of condoms, three baby bottles and the 5 lb. jar of grape jelly every two weeks is up to them.
Blackmail seems an interesting option (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Maybe we should charge them? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:FamilyNet customer support (Score:5, Funny)
Re:FamilyNet customer support (Score:5, Funny)
Why stop there? (Score:3, Funny)
They can sell information on everyone you called, use speech recognition to monetize the content of your calls. And since you voluntarily brought a phone into your life, why turn off the microphone just because you aren't making a call? Just continuously record everything in the vicinity - there must be a wealth of data there that someone would pay for.
Why stop there? Most phones these days come with at least one camera, many with two. Activate both, and stream the data back to a data collection point. Do image search and color-gradient analysis, pick out those that indicate some hanky panky, hire some folks in the far east for a dollar a day to comb through the video data and pick out only those streams that show people in a comprimising position, and then monetize in one of the following ways:
1. Blackmail your victim^H^H^H^H^H customer (a monthly fee not to tell the missus/mister what you've been up to in your cubical at 10pm last night, or to not send your family intimate pics of your honeymoon, etc.)
2. For those who won't or can't pay, hire another set of people with video editing skills to weave together full length videos of people's intimiate moments, and sell online.
3. Charge a premium for videos of people who 'live near you'.
4. Profit!
Bonus points for those iPhone holding iSlaves ... they can provide the content, but their 'freedom from porn' ensures they can't watch it (at least not on their iShackles).
I mean, it's not as if we have any real rights anyway, once there's a bottom line to be made, and it isn't like this is any creepier than the 'dead peasants insurance' most of our employers have taken out on us already.
Re:FamilyNet customer support (Score:4, Funny)
Ah, so that's why we heard "Oh, God! YES!!!" over your line...
Re:"Value Added" (Score:3, Funny)