[amarant]

What will the government even do with my heart rate and blood oxygen data?

"Mr Smith has been running again, we better bring him in for questioning!"

Edit: to be clear, the government is requesting the data, so clearly they're doing something with it... But what? I don't see it!

[jubilanti]

Target infamously was inferring when teenage girls were pregnant before their parents knew based on reward card data records of single merchant retail purchases.... in 2002.

Tech companies when they speak to VCs: look at all the creepy things we can infer with ooodles of aggregated data and AI to maximize targeted ad revenue, we're worth 50x what an equivalent non-tech company in our sector is valued, because of all the things we can do with all that data from all those people together

Tech companies when they speak to their customers: oh you're so silly to even ask about privacy, what possible utility could there be in that single isolated variable?

[nkrisc]

Accidentally inferring. They were using basic machine learning to send coupons for predicted future purchases based on past purchases and general trends. And as far as I’m aware, it only happened once (or was only publicized once).

[fc417fc802]

It almost certainly happened regularly since the entire point of the program was to make accurate predictions about future purchases. The practical impact of acting on those predictions only caused mild controversy and became publicized the one time (at least that I'm aware of) but we have no reason to expect that the program was unsuccessful and every reason to expect that it was.

[bladeacidic]

The thing that cocaine users have noticed, is that using cocaine raises their heart-rate. Noticeably. So the government getting heart rate data means they know when those users are doing coke. Wouldn't the DEA like to know where all the cocaine users with Oura rings in the US are?

[xboxnolifes]

Buys your heart rate and blood oxygen data from Oura. Collects your iris data from Eyez. Purchases your fitness data from Borg. Sees your purchasing patterns through Krump. Knows everything you've said online through Gwimp. Gets your sequenced DNA from FamaTree. Tracks your location data from, well, nearly every app in existance.

What could they possibly do from this single variable???

[mathgladiator]

Sell me things that I might want... i did buy the Gibson slack board... hrmmm

[wil421]

Nobody cares that’s why this stuff sells.

[none2585]

Also if you're a woman biological signals can be used to know when you are on your cycle and thus missed it.

[Sharlin]

Given the keen interest in women's reproductive biology exhibited by many conservatives, I could definitely see them trying to, say, catch pregnant people who suddenly become non-pregnant.

[none2585]

Yep exactly my point. My partner will not even use cycle apps at this point because states can and undoubtedly will access that data to prove termination of pregnancy.

[ratdragon]

Ordering a taxi after running outside of US? Probably missed some mass transport. Raise the price boys... like good old Uber back in the day based on iphone battery level. Really the possibilities are endless if you're evil.

Bad health? Raise the insurance premiums? Or anything more evil I can't think of.

edit: grammar

[amarant]

None of those things sounds like stuff the government would have a hand in, unless you live in some communist country where the taxis are state-owned?

[cess11]

That'd probably be nice.

A capitalist, or as in this case, fascist, state might figure out all sorts of interesting things from mass surveillance, such as who might be disloyal, who is eligible for eugenic culling, who might be fun to deport, and who is vulnerable to sticks or carrots or both and could do something for the state that the state does not want to do directly.

[al_borland]

I’ve seen stories where fitness trackers were used to tie someone to a murder.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Connie_Dabate

[drfloyd51]

He was running at the same time our cops were chasing people. Bring him in.

[jonners00]

No one seems to care anymore, but a big issue that people were concerned about in the 2000s was the switch from 'I know more about me than the blob (corps, gov, etc) does' to, 'I need the blob to remind me where the hell I was that day'. Heart rate and blood oxygen data are hard to exploit data points but not impossible(1), but facing an accusation from someone who knows more about your movements than you do is an uncomfortable scenario. Of course right now, if you're facing an acusation of this type, odds are it's legitimate, or if not, defenseable, but that was the case 15 years ago in Türkiye, but isn't now. Things change.

(Note 1:"Dr. Bootlicker, the defendant wants the court to believe that she calmly placed herself between the agent and the minor he was trying to apprehend, and asserts that the agent's claim, that the defendant's actions constitute assault, is, in her words, 'ridiculous'. But am I correct in understanding that you view minutes 8 and 9 of the biometric data submitted to the court as characteristic of significant physical exertion that might be similar to that undergone by an assailant while commiting an assault?")

[anigbrowl]

Most likely biometric data on crime suspects to correlate with other forensic data. Obtaining this data on a case by case basis is expensive so it is most likely to be used in high stakes cases like murders or bank robberies where police and prosecutors need to show a win.

For example, A is known to have been an associate of B. B died violently at a certain time and date. Phone data put both of them in the same general area around that time. A seems evasive and won't talk. But A's biometric data reveals intense physical activity around the time of B's death...

Other suggestions in this thread like algorithmically making things worse for people in general are predicated on continual availability for a whole deanonymized population.

[autoexec]

They'll know when and how often you're awake or sleep (including how well you slept), sick, fucking, drunk or high, anxious or upset, relaxed, shitting, menstruating, medicated, etc. Combined with other data and tracked over time there is a shocking amount of intimate information you can get from just those two things which is why companies like Oura and Fitbit are so eager to get their hands on it.

[FerretFred]

"I see Mr Smith was running in [street/location] when the explosion occurred - we'd better bring him in for questioning". Maybe the Oura doesn't record that, but if they can match other metadata with Smith's ring it could put him firmly in the frame.

[AmblingAvocado]

They used iPhone pick up and orientation data to build a narrative in the trial of Alex Murdaugh, so I imagine something similar.

[reaperducer]

What will the government even do with my heart rate and blood oxygen data?

It's not in isolation. It's in aggregation. So you end up with

"Mr. Smith's heart rate goes off the charts for six minutes every time his phone visits this apartment building in the middle of the night and is within radio range of Ms. Jones' phone."

[kwar13]

the good old 'i have nothing to hide, therefore it doesn't matter'

[jubilanti]

You're on Hacker News, think like a hacker - in both meanings of the term - for what could possibly go wrong.

[amarant]

I did, and came up blank... Any pointers?

[mh-]

I guess neither of us are hacker enough. I can't come up with anything interesting [that wouldn't be more readily available via cell networks], either.

[Forge36]

Location and time

[dalyons]

They already have that from your cellphone