A tiny glimpse of the “big data” of me
How much data can be gathered about me from three simple devices before I even have my 11am cup of coffee?
I wake up at 7.30am, and my JawBone Up3 tells me how well I slept. It knows what time I fell asleep, how long I was in deep sleep, light sleep, REM sleep and when I woke up. It knows the periods I was in and out of each phase of sleep and it knows what my heart rate was right before I woke up.
My central heating timer is currently set to come on in the morning to heat my water in advance of my shower, and make the house warm and inviting to wake up to. Now if that was linked to my JawBone Up… no need to set it.
My car knows how much fuel I use per mile, and how many miles of range I have in the fuel in my tank right now. My smartphone knows I’m moving, so I’m likely in the car if I’m doing 30MPH.
The car knows if there’s anyone in the passenger seat — so if there’s only one person, in the driving seat, and my phone is connected to the car’s bluetooth, then it’s likely me driving. Certain, if I’ve opened my phone by my fingerprint.
When I leave, when I arrive, the routes I take and how the traffic affects me are all available through my phone.
If I fill up with fuel, the car can detect that fuel has increased. I pay by card, so my banking app detects a spend. These can be cross-referenced and augmented with location data from my smartphone and now suddenly I know how much I spend on fuel, how often, how much range I get from it and so on…
All day, my JawBone knows if I’m sitting down, walking around or going upstairs. My mobile network knows who I call and text and for how long, My ISP knows which websites I’ve visited, and for how long, and what data I transacted (and most likely so does Google and potentially other third parties).
The sheer volume of data that’s available about me before I’ve had my 11am cup of coffee is staggering. If a government announced that every citizen was going to wear a tracking device that monitored their heart rate, exact position and daily routine it would be a nanny state.
But when it’s a series of small commercial products that just happen to link together… It’s smart technology.
