Free Republic

Popular smartphone apps used to track people’s location and provide weather reports may hand over driving data to a firm that sells the information to insurance companies for the purposes of setting rates for unsuspecting motorists... apps Life360, MyRadar and Gas Buddy are providing user data to an Allstate-owned company, Arity, which computes the numbers to create a “driving score” that takes into account any risky behavior behind the wheel... That information is then sold to other insurance firms — with user consent — which set rates for their customers ... Life360, which is used by parents to keep track...

Could an app motivate marijuana users to exercise? The National Institutes of Health is giving $357,750 in taxpayer dollars through its National Institute on Drug Abuse to State University of New York at Buffalo to find out. “Currently, marijuana (MJ) is the most popular illicit drug, but there are few effective interventions to help young adults (age 18 to 25 years) to reduce their MJ intake and avoid negative consequences, including dependence,” the grant noted. “This study will develop and initially test an intervention [personalized feedback on MJ use + a smartphone app to promote exercise/physical activity (PA) as a...

The days of indecision and miscommunication in the drive-through lane of a fast-food restaurant could be long gone. Taco Bell recently launched an app that enables customer to order and pay for it straight from a smartphone. “It gives customers control. They don’t want to talk to people all the time,” Taco Bell chief marketing officer Chris Brandt tells Fast Company. And the app allows for more creativity in what to order. “The app offers unlimited menu customization options,” reports Eater. “Users can, for the first time, build their own unique creations using dozens of ingredients.” …