
Second Measure (YC S15) Offers Live Data Analysis of Public/Private Companies - kevin
http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/10/second-measure-launches-offering-powerful-live-data-analysis-of-publicprivate-companies/
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probdist
This isn't that surprising as a thing that generates value. My questions are
1) how is this legal, and 2) what kind of agreement was forged with the credit
card providers to make this possible?

If we recall back a few months, analysts at Capital One were investigated and
charged by the SEC related to insider trading of consumer stocks by examining
very similar information streams.

[http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-01-23/capital-
one...](http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-01-23/capital-one-fraud-
researchers-may-also-have-done-some-fraud)

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nl
_My questions are 1) how is this legal, and 2) what kind of agreement was
forged with the credit card providers to make this possible?_

Of course it is legal. Credit card companies have had agreements in place to
share information like this for years. In some cases it isn't anonymized
either. Acxiom[1] is probably the best known company working in this area.

[1] [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/business/a-data-broker-
off...](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/business/a-data-broker-offers-a-
peek-behind-the-curtain.html?_r=0)

~~~
probdist
The credit card data derived real time sales estimates were criminally insider
information when individual people at firms were doing it (see Capital One
case). It is okay for entire firms to be based around this same type of data
stream?

Especially as an invitation only "not public" offering.

~~~
nl
Capital One had a financial insider relationship with the company they were
trading, and were sourcing the information using that relationship. The
article notes that this was "misappropriation" insider trading, not the normal
case.

Even then, it wasn't a clear-cut case.

If you are sourcing the data from other sources and don't have that kind of
relationship it really isn't going to be a problem

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wexxx
If they buy data from Yodlee, I wonder how long they'll still be able to get
it...

[http://www.wsj.com/articles/provider-of-personal-finance-
too...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/provider-of-personal-finance-tools-tracks-
bank-cards-sells-data-to-investors)

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tixocloud
Incredibly brilliant idea to get sales data through credit card transactions!!
Congratulations.

I spent many hours trying to understand how to grab that information to make
our app more useful. Unfortunately, the best I could come up with was
partnering with POS companies.

However, I can imagine how much it must cost to purchase the credit card data.
I don't think credit card companies would offer that up for cheap.

