Data logging is fun… but who are you sharing with?

I spend a lot of time reading BoingBoing ( http://boingboing.net/ ) because it points me at interesting/quirky/important/insane stuff and enough of it is interesting enough that there are generally two or three tabs open in my browser that I plan to explore.

Such as this one – http://boingboing.net/2012/11/21/expereal-iphone-app-to-ratea.html – a post by Jonathan Cohen about what looks like a really interesting iPhone app called Expereal that will ‘let you rate/analyze your life via data visualization’ I’m interested in lifelogging, but have only gone as far as getting a Fitbit (http://www.fitbit.com/uk/product).

This afternoon I finally got around to clicking the link in the BoingBoing piece, thinking I’d install Expereal and try it out. But I won’t – the page at http://expereal.com/ tells me all the cool stuff it will do, and then notes that I have to:

Login with Facebook (Required & only means of login)

and that I can

Share individual ratings to Facebook (Optional)

Thanks, but no thanks. I don’t want a system that forces me to share with Facebook. I have no reason to trust Expereal with my data, and certainly no reason to believe that the boundary between it and Facebook will end up being anything but porous. The app is free, so data sharing is the price to pay, it seems. I’d rather have paid £1.99 for something to try out, and be a customer instead of a data feed.

Posted via email from The Sound of Bill

2 Replies to “Data logging is fun… but who are you sharing with?”

  1. Completely agree. Golden rule – if a product is free, then you’re the one being sold.
    Came across this today Quantified Self. http://quantifiedself.com/ No real idea what it’s about but looks interesting. Quite a ‘step’ further than Fitbit or Stepstats…

  2. Bill,

    Thanks for the feedback. I have heard you and others.

    The app is meant to be “social”, allowing for ratings comparisons with friends and others, but I am going to work on an alternate login for those who don’t want to use Facebook.

    Regardless, if people do not want their anonymous data (not attributable to their individual profiles) shared with other users, I’m asking them to please not use Expereal.

    Please feel free to contact me via the website or Twitter with any questions.

    Sincerely,

    Jonathan
    twitter.com/expereal

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