
Want Everyone To See Your Credit Card Transactions? Meet Blippy. - vaksel
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/11/blippy/
======
run4yourlives
This is the part where I find I need to admit that I'm growing older. I'm no
longer young and hip, but part of an older generation of "unsocial" people
that see absolutely no point in something like this.

To be frank, I don't give a fuck what my friends buy. I don't care what random
thoughts they have during the day either, or how many fucking cows they bought
in some stupid game I've never played.

I'm sure this will do well though. Just not with me as a user.

~~~
heresy
I don't quite understand the complete lack of regard that younger people have
for privacy these days, either.

It will all end in tears.

Unless you're an attention whore or a shill getting kickbacks for marketing, I
really don't see the draw.

~~~
randallsquared
_It will all end in tears._

It will middle in tears, anyway.

------
ramanujan
The only thing that would be interesting about this is if the Blippy card gave
you 1% off of every transaction.

Suddenly you'd face a tradeoff between privacy vs. getting a discount[1].

That 1% could almost certainly be made up by analytics and viral referrals. If
someone saw your stream and clicked on say an Amazon book, then Amazon easily
makes that 1% back. In fact, for some companies the discount could be
substantially more than 1%.

[1] Importantly, experiments have shown that privacy is dear but cheap. I
recall an experiment where people stood in a busy area and paid people $10 for
their username and password. Many took them up on it.

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teuobk
What comes after this? A tool for friends to share data about with whom
they're sleeping? That would seem to take "making behaviors visible" to its
logical end.

(Actually, it wouldn't surprise me to learn that something of that sort exists
in the dark corners of the web.)

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evdawg
I find it completely and utterly mind boggling that anyone would find this
useful. Spending habits are private: tracking your OWN is useful. But sharing
everything publicly? It's insane. Guaranteed you are going to be embarrassed
after you reveal your $200 purchase at the Love Shack or once your friends
realize you eat at McDonalds 3 times a week. What happens people start
tracking down gifts or you blow the surprise on your engagement ring?

People want to share _some_ of the things they buy to show off, but no one
wants to share _everything_ they buy. From the mundane to the inane to the
embarrassing, it's a wide window into your private life that very few would
feel comfortable opening.

~~~
randallsquared
The article covers this: you register one of your cards, and use that for
public purchases. They plan to provide a sticker for that card to make it more
obvious.

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mattmaroon
Is today April 1st? My calendar says 12/11/09 and there's snow on the ground,
but it must be April 1st because there's no way this could not be a prank.
Nobody could possibly think this could be popular.

~~~
randallsquared
I'd be interested in using it, but I'm a terrible predictor of what other
people will find interesting.

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tdoggette
I predict that almost all of the reaction will be "oh, that's interesting, but
I'd never use it." I also predict that CNN will at some point in the next week
have this in their rotation of stories.

------
mahmud
This is heaven for marketing, can't wait for it to get integrated into
Facebook. I wont use it myself, but it's great to know what people are
spending money on.

------
jasonlbaptiste
Too bad hookers and blow dealers don't take credit cards.

~~~
gr366
Not to worry, Square has them covered. <https://squareup.com/>

~~~
jasonlbaptiste
[insert evil laugh]

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vaksel
dumbest idea of 2009?

~~~
guit
you don't find it at all intriguing?

~~~
vaksel
besides the technology?

no...I find it insane. How about an iPhone App that let's the world hear all
of your conversations?

~~~
guit
pricing transparency for variable priced services (comcast, gyms, etc.) could
be very empowering for consumers. crowd-sourced fraud detection seems pretty
interesting as well. and of course, discovery elements...

~~~
vaksel
but that's not what this is

~~~
guit
FTA: "And because the actual purchase prices are made visible, there are other
interesting dynamics. For example, imagine being able to tell if you’re
getting ripped off with what you’re paying for a gym membership or on your
Comcast bill when compared to what your friends are spending on the same
things.

There’s also the potential to have private accounts that maybe a businessman
would only share with his assistant to let them know what’s being purchased
and explain things a bit better in the comments. Again, yes the idea is
controversial, but there are a lot of interesting things that could come of
it, if people are willing to be this transparent."

Owning this data is valuable.

------
ruslan
I think they are taking recent Eric Shmidt's quote too firm :-).

