Google Mobile Meter App Tipped To Reward Users For Being Tracked

If you had harsh feelings about having Google, Facebook, or any other massive company tracking your activity for their own gain, fret no more: Google is being tipped today to make with the rewards. According to a tip sent to Engadget, there's a new app coming soon to Android and Apple's iPhone devices, one that will "compensate" users in return for tracking their data. This system is said to be using codename "Mobile Meter" internally and will be sending mobile usage data back to Google where Google will use it anonymously.

This system is not something Google is commenting on publically – not yet, anyway. An app recording the whereabouts of you and your data and your doings might not even be something Google ever wants to release to the public. But if it does, and if the rewards for doing such tracking are real, we've got to wonder what kind of compensation would be in order – maybe a few more Google Play gift cards, the same as those appearing under the wrappers of KitKat bars this month.

This will be data tracking – again, if proven real and delivered to the public – above and beyond what's already tracked in every smartphone today. Google's trackers work through Google Search for Google Now, while Facebook's tracking of your data lives inside the apps and webpages you work with every day. Google's tracking here with Mobile Meter could allow them to gain insight into your everyday habits, both in and out of the web browser as such.

Google will likely go the extra mile when it comes to showing how this data is tracked and where it'll be stored, not to mention how secure it is and how anonyous the whole project will be. The system will likely have a slightly more difficult time finding its way into Apple's iTunes app store, especially given the possibilities of offline tracking throughout the smartphone. Take another grain of salt on this one – for the second time this morning already.