As the saying goes, If you're not paying for the product, you are the product. For social networks and their data brokers, that product is personal data about what you like and what you buy, even the President knows how that works. Self-quantification startups, on the other hand, look at the product within you. It's a very literal take on behavioral tracking.

A new app called Exist climbed to the top of Hacker News today with screenshots of its service which quantifies everything short of what porn you watched last time. The company says it's able to collect this much super personal intel because it integrates with services like Jawbone UP, Fitbit, Moves, Last.fm, Foursquare, Twitter, and more.


As one of the Hacker News commenters noted:

Nice looking application, but you are collecting a ton of personal data without any indication of your intent. You really need a terms of use somewhere, especially if you plan is to collect all of this data and sell it (which could be very valuable). Even if you aren't sure, a good policy will give you that ability without the risk of bad PR and a knock on your door from some regulator.

Now might be the time to mobilize on that whole compensating users for the data they turn over idea.

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