网络分析法进入实体商店

    Placed Insights使用了GPS、Wi-Fi网络、蜂窝三角网定位、加速计和陀螺仪等技术，不仅可以确定某个人是否到达了某个地理位置，还能确定他们是否进了门，甚至还能知道他们在建筑内的活动情况。

    如果这给你的感觉有点霸道，那么你不妨记住，眼下有7万人自愿加入了Placed的服务，被它的显微镜扫描着自己的一举一动（作为回报，Placed会给用户提供各种激励，比如小额奖励或是把钱捐给慈善组织）。另外希姆还表示，他的公司把收集来的数据提交给客户时，其中的任何数据都不会关联到任何一个具体用户的姓名。另外Placed公司还承诺，不会针对用户发送商业广告。这些数据只会汇聚成大数据模式以供分析之用。同时这些数据还会通过人口普查报告等其它数据进行“规范化”。比如如果这款手机应用的一个用户是白人，但他所居住的社区以黑人为主，那么这个数据点有可能会根据实际情况被纳入或被筛选出去。

    事实上，很多人并不愿意只是作为分析研究的“小白鼠”，为别人提供营销数据，因此愿意下载这款应用的人并不多。所以Placed公司与一些应用开发者达成了协议，把Placed Insights的功能整合到其它应用里——通常是以旅游为主的应用。需要再次说明的是，它依然本着自愿原则。应用开发者也可以从这种合作中赚一点钱。希姆表示，他们“每个月可以赚几百到几千美元”。这一点还是挺有吸引力的，因为大部分上述应用都是免费的。

    虽然目标群体都是自行加入的（该应用不会衡量用户群总体上会做什么，只会衡量自愿加入的智能手机用户会做什么），但是希姆表示，Placed Insights服务还是极为精确的。他指出：“人们加入尼尔森的收视率调查不也是自愿的吗。”（财富中文网）

    译者：朴成奎

    Placed Insights uses GPS, Wi-Fi networks, cellular triangulation, and accelerometer and gyroscope technologies to determine not only whether a person has arrived at a destination, but whether they went inside, and even their movements in buildings.

    If all this sounds a bit Big Brotherish, it's helpful to remember that all of the 70,000 people (at the moment) under Placed's microscope have opted in to the service (in return for various incentives, such as small rewards or having money donated to charity). And Shim says that none of the data is attached to any user's name when it is turned over to his customers. The company promises that users of its app will not be personally targeted with ads: The data is used only in aggregate form, for analytical purposes. The data is "normalized" using other data such as census reports. If a white app user happens to live in a mostly black neighborhood, for example, that data point is factored in -- or out.

    Not all that many people are interested in downloading Placed's own app just to provide data for marketing purposes, so Placed strikes deals with app developers to put the functionality into other apps -- often travel-oriented ones. Again, it's all opt-in. Developers can actually make some decent coin from this: Shim says they get "a few hundred to a few thousand dollars a month," which is particularly attractive since most of the apps in question are free.

    While the group is self-selected (the app doesn't really measure what the population at large does -- it measures what smartphone users who have chosen to take part do), Shim says it is nevertheless as accurate as such a thing can possibly be. "People opt in to Nielsen ratings, too," he points out.