Would you let your phone spy on you for $10 per month?

[bania]

Nope. $10? Maybe for $70 and that's only because its anonymous.

[Deleted]

I would do this on a tablet if they gave me unlimited data for free and some break on actually buying the tablet. For some reason, my phone feels more private than a tablet does.

[juliagoulia]

If someone really wants to give me $10/month to see me google stupid crap and watch porn, I guess it would be OK.

[LeggsBenedict]

"holy shit, she's checking twitter AGAIN?"

[montereybride]

Hmmm. I might.

As long as I was 100 fucking percent sure it was 100% anonymous and secure.

[LeggsBenedict]

I want to know what they think of me googling Jonathan Taylor Thomas at three in the morning.

[BNL2]

I wouldn't because I never trust things like that. I would swear the government was trying to to make a case against me.

[Jillaroo]

I would, but not for $10. My random googling is worth more than that.

[polka]

No, I don't trust stuff like that though.

[spanishtechno]

No. How can one be assured that no identity theft would occur? I use a Chase app, for instance, and automatically upload checks to my account, and with this app on my Ipad, I could no longer login to Chase. Even $1000 would not sway my decision; my husband prosecutes healthcare fraud and by extension identity theft cases, and criminals will do sneaky things to get the info they need to steal your identity.

[snickers]

Nah, I don't need 10 dollars that bad.
But if I did, it would be fine I am sure.

[litebright]

Yes, I would. But I know the industry and I have a pretty good sense of what's legit. 

There's all kinds of usage info that your cell carrier can access (even if they mostly don't yet, b/c they're still figuring it out and there's a massive amount of it b/c they have millions of users). I was talking to someone last week about an Arbitron study that basically did the same thing -- tracked how users with a particular app (in this case, MobiTiles, which is made by a different company that partners with the AP, The Weather Channel, etc.) and their level of engagement/how often they used it compared to other apps like Google search, Chrome for browsing, YouTube, Facebook, etc. 

Carriers *can* get that kind of information and they're getting better at sifting it, particularly when it comes to LTE networks because they're all IP; but it's harder for other companies like app developers and marketers/advertisers/analyst companies. So yeah, I see why that visibility is valuable to them. For some of the analyst companies, putting together huge numbers of people who let them track usage is their bread & butter. 

They recruit users who opt in, and generally they don't give a hoot about personal info beyond demographics; I doubt most of their apps are less secure than any other app, and perhaps more so than ones that involve credit card transactions like Groupon, Zulily and those type. They want usage info -- and the granularity depends on what they're looking for. So they may not even be getting the info that you're, say, viewing porn -- they're more interested in how you're doing it (whether you downloaded an app that you paid for or if you're doing it via Chrome) and possibly how much data traffic you're generating by watching video/how much of your overall data use it accounts for. It all depends on the parameters. 

[sillygoosegirl]

I think DH would. He often talks about how he would like a smartphone, but only a few days per month when traveling or whatever. He's could just disable the spyware those days. Assuming it was legit.

[jane6672]

Fuck no.

[cheeseandcrackers]

they would have to pay me more

[ndolehan]

I would, but I'm cheap and right now every little bit helps.

[UMaineTeach]

no. and not for $10/mo.

maybe for a free phone and free unlimited service (sort of like having a company phone)

Neilsen pays like $20/wk for filling out the TV diary. This company would be getting so much more than a handwritten account of what I watched on TV.

[aperoll13]

I actually did download the Mobile Trends app on my phone over 2 months ago. I ran the app for about 45 days. In which time the app drained my battery horribly. I emailed Ideashifters asking when I would receive my $10 gift card. They said I ran the app for 25 days so I would be receiving it soon. Here we are, 5 emails later and over 2 months have passed and I haven't received anything from them. They told me that I would receive it 9/15. After I didn't receive it I emailed them again. They told me I would get it 10/1. Here we are on the 4th and they still haven't sent me anything. I emailed them yet again so I guess I'll have to wait 5 days for them to get back to me (if they do at all). They have not responded to all of my emails. I was really nice about it before, but now it's just frustrating and it's the principal. After downloaded it, they emailed me at least 4 or 5 times telling me to download the app. If they don't fix this asap. I'm going to continue telling my story to everyone. I recommend staying far away from this app.