Follow-up to my previous ScanLife entry
The day after my ScanLife write-up had appeared on this blog, I had received contact from David Javitch, Vice-President of Marketing at ScanBuy, Inc.
In said e-mail, he clarified a few things that I wondered about the software and even offered a chance to be in on future releases under the condition that I sign a non-disclosure agreement--I politely turned the offer down.
Here's the e-mail as is.
Subject: ScanLife Write Up
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 2009 11:03:17 -0500
From: David Javitch
To: <general@keyboardcowboy.ca>Colin,
We read your detailed write up on our ScanLife system and were very impressed with the level of detail and accuracy – which is very refreshing these days.
One clarification I wanted to make is around the data we collect from the user. One protection is that the data is completely anonymous and we do connect it to the IMEI as you correctly pointed out. Any demographic information is provided voluntarily by the user, and we never request their name, email or phone number. Many people provide this data because it is anonymous, and it just helps our customers communicate more effectively. Yes, this is part of our product which we sell, but we also provide the consumer application at no cost. As you know, developing mobile apps that access handset API’s is very complicated and time consuming.
If you are interested, we would be happy to share new releases with you which you can provide feedback on before going to the public. We can also provide some answers to any other questions you may have. I have attached a standard NDA which we would prefer that you sign if you are agreeable. Much of what we would share with you can be communicated on your blog, but some information would still be confidential (at least until it is made public).
Thanks again for your time around this technology, and I hope to hear from you soon.
David Javitch
VP of Marketing | Scanbuy, Inc.
It makes a bit more sense now on how the USER-ID is created--the IMEI is unique the handset. I am glad that he answered a few points about how certain user information. However, I still stand by the superiority that QR and data matrix give.
The rest of the e-mail correspondence isn't worth posting. And with that, I might follow-up on ScanLife in the future, but for now it'll be laid to rest. A few new projects are coming my way (one involves RFID) that are looking to be way more interesting.