Having started numerous tech companies myself, interviewed hundreds of others who have, and started a community that instructions others on how to do so, I will say that HN's perception of how easy, profitable, and common it is to have a business model focused on selling data is overblown. I'd wager the vast majority of data collectors (e.g. Google Analytics accounts) just want it for their own internal decision-making and analysis.
But trusting companies to do the right thing is untenable. That trust has been broken far too often, by far too many companies. The only rational position a concerned user can take is to assume that anybody collecting such sensitive information (particularly in a sneaky way) intends to monetize it or use it for purposes other than product improvement.
And even if the data really will only be used for product development, getting the user's informed consent -- and refraining from data collection without it -- is critical.
Further, using GA automatically means that the data is being used for Google's purposes as well as the application creator's.
As much as I would like to believe you, I cannot. With literally almost every company around me gathering analytics and with every average person's operating system, web browser, social media, phones, televisions, smart locks, smart fridges, graphic card drivers and graphic tablets sending this data out in bulk, you are not going to convince me that the authors of all that software are siphoning data out of us all for nothing.
> you are not going to convince me that the authors of all that software are siphoning data out of us all for nothing.
That's not what they are saying at all, and suggesting it's for nothing proves you don't understand the value of using the data for internal decision making. Simply put: the main use of this data is for that reason: internal decision making. Answering questions like:
* How are our customers using our products?
* What errors are they experiencing?
* What features are they using?
* Where are they confused?
* What features cause the most problems?
* What feature should we work on next?
These are all regular questions that are answered by collecting these types of metrics, including the one described in this post. Selling the data to third parties isn't easy. The data is generally gathered to inform product decisions, not to sell, so it's not in any easy format that makes it easy to sell. One has to go out of their way to sell this data, and the cost to put together this data in a way that's useful to sell would almost certainly cost more to setup and manage than they would get from such a small number of relative users.
The simple fact is, everyone sends data back to their servers for collecting and parsing, including Apple, the company everyone puts on a pedestal for privacy.
Simply put: show me the evidence they are selling the data to third parties for profit. Anything less is speculation.
If you have large data-sets/streams, companies like Acxiom and Innovis are interested buyers. Are you trying to imply that brokering consumer data is a marginal or non-existant business?
> Are you trying to imply that brokering consumer data is a marginal or non-existant business?
For small/mid-size datasets (which is what we're talking about), yes, that's exactly what I'm implying. It's not actually easy for most companies to sell user data for a quick buck like is being claimed.
