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Blippy publishes your credit card transactions to the web
You knew the trend toward transparency on the web would reach this point eventually: there's now an app that lets you automatically publish every credit card purchase you make to the web, where friends can comment and interact with them, Facebook-style. It's called Blippy.The idea of showing your friends everything you buy obviously raises some privacy concerns. Some purchases are embarrassing, and sometimes you might just want to be off the grid. Blippy suggests using a separate credit card for the service, so you have control over which transactions show up and which don't. On the other hand, Blippy makes location-based social networking almost automatic: if you share your purchases in real time, your friends know your location in real time, no check-in necessary.
Blippy will also integrate with other sites, like iTunes and Amazon, to show more details of what you bought. That's pretty cool, actually, because it's more than my bank and credit card websites show me. Sometimes it's easy to forget what you spent that $40 on at Amazon. Even if you're not cool with sharing your whole retail life with the Internet, that extra information might make a private Blippy account worth having.
What do you think, Download Squad readers? Will Blippy catch on? Would you use it?
[via TechCrunch]
Comments
23
Subscribe to commentsSugarDaddyDec 14th 2009 10:36AM
This sounds like a joke. Besides, why not just use Twitter? Do people really want potential employers being able to look at their spending habits? This is a disturbing trend.
DanDec 15th 2009 1:00AM
Blippy is laying a foundation to lead economics toward becoming a hard science. Current economic data sucks compared to what Blippy could potentially make available.
Obviously, privacy is an issue, but I can search and see what people are paying for x, y, or z and make more informed purchasing decisions - makes it easier to manage your money.
There is no chance that the government will every be able to collect this sort of granular information - regardless of party, the public wouldn't trust politicians with something like this. One of the biggest problems with studying any economic system is data. This is why we have macroeconomics. How the heck do you analyze billions of transactions per day in a country? We make very intelligent guesses.
How old are the commentors here? Everyone is paranoid about privacy... I think Blippy understands that fear, and desires to incorporate functionality to relieve your phobia. I can't wait to see what Blippy has become in 5 years.
TimDec 16th 2009 12:59PM
What Blippy has become in 5 years, Dan? Let me give you a hint: out of business for 4 years.
While I appreciate that they tried to come up with thinly veiled utility instead of just saying "Hey, we want to have all your purchasing data so we can deluge you with a bunch of 'superior' advertising and rent your profile to advertisers/stores" (which is painfully obvious that they're going to do) the whole "sharing all your purchases" thing is idiotic. They would have been better off just offering people $5 a pop to sign up a card or something--at least it would have been honest/less creepy.
Sharing is hot right now. But even the most moronic of mouth breathers are going take pause when they hear this "value prop."