This makes sense (and myQ’s privacy policy is a nightmare: https://www.myq.com/privacy-notice) but I’ve never understood how this particular bit of data is valuable to anyone. Any ideas?
I buy a garage door opener. That is the end of my transaction.
I buy a connected garage door opener. The provider knows my geolocation, my name, email address, socioeconomic status, even the phone I own. Inferences can be made on activity such as "they leave for work at 7am when garage door opens".
The collection of data doesn't need to be used specifically for reengaging me with Chamberlain. It is now an asset to the company that can be sold to others as outlined in their Information Sharing section. Which basically says "we share it with everyone".
Partners can be anyone from insurance companies to academic researchers. Remember that partners aren't limited to just one data set. They have the ability to ask multiple companies: "What data do you have for all occupants of houses in this geographic area?"
> Remember that partners aren't limited to just one data set. They have the ability to ask multiple companies: "What data do you have for all occupants of houses in this geographic area?"
Yup. And to make the issue clear: there is no such thing as "anonymized data", there's only "anonymized until correlated with enough related data sets".
* someone who drives frequently may rank higher for automotive products and services
* use to independently rank other statistics, i.e. someone with kids probably comes and goes more than a single person or non-child-rearing couple. Take the dataset where you know they have kids (and myQ) and see if you can detect the ones with kids using only myQ data (plus other statistics). If it allows you to infer this property accurately enough, profit.
* Someone who comes and goes a lot is most likely not physically disabled, so exclude them from those specific marketing materials.
* someone who is home a lot (hardly ever opens their garage door) might like to spend money on useless gadgets, try selling them IoT toasters
This makes sense (and myQ’s privacy policy is a nightmare: https://www.myq.com/privacy-notice) but I’ve never understood how this particular bit of data is valuable to anyone. Any ideas?