
Ask HN: Why would Amazon want to track my emotional state? - jjackson21
Amazon just announced a new fitness band called Halo. The most interesting feature is a microphone that listens to your voice and uses AI to guess what your emotional state was throughout the day.<p>The band will intermittently listen to the tone, pitch, intensity, rhythm, and tempo of your voice and then categorizes them into emotional states like hopeful, elated, hesitant, bored, apologetic, happy, worried, confused, and affectionate.
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DamnYuppie
People usually spend more when they are at either end of the emotional
spectrum. They are very happy, why not splurge, they are really upset, why not
make themselves feel better by buying something. Many people use spending as a
form of self medication, credit card companies and retailers love them for
that.

I view it as a predator/prey relationship with Amazon/CC being the predators
and I being the prey. Why would I give them more information on my intentions
and vulnerabilities then I have too? These companies don't exist to make my
life better, they thrive when they extract as much of my money from me as
possible, whether to my own benefit or detriment.

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LandR
If it detects you are feeling down and you visit Amazon.com, it could show you
an ads for example "Feeling down? Treat yourself to foo"

I don't know if Amazon would stoop this low though.

