I learned a little tidbit of information yesterday.

Do you know those Coke Freestyle machines?
The ones that allow you to add whatever base and syrup you want to your paper cup?

There’s the freedom to come up with flavor combinations that can’t be found on the open market.

So, you could have Dr. Pepper Orange or Coke Peach. I guess if you wanted to become experimental, you could try Cherry Lime Vanilla Sprite.

No judgement. It’s up to you.

What coke does, apparently, is gather information from these freestyle machines and, if something is popular, it’s actually created and marketed.

That’s how we got Sprite Tea and Coke Orange Vanilla.

We’re doing the market research for them.

The Freestyle machines are connected to the Internet of Things. Through research, the company can gleam the demographics of the customers — age, financial status, ect — and what the restaurant reorders just confirms what is used in the machine.

I find this to be uncontrollably devious. Honestly, it’s something that I would never have considered.

Remember those silly flavors?
Byte, Pixel, Starlight… ? Yeah. Those are probably experimental flavors from when people just add random multiple syrups.

This was even hinted as the Y3000 flavor was developed by “AI.” AI means that it gathered information and created a zombie flavor.

Where did the AI get the information? From us using the Freestyle machines.

What people drink is kind of private. It’s something personal, especially when there are over 100 (as they boast) options. Privacy is a way to self-develop without the constructs of meeting society or social expectations or needs.

Privacy is a way to self-explore without judgement for personal growth and just to see what works and what doesn’t work

Sour Power-aid does nothing for me. I’d never have known that if I didn’t try it through the privacy of a Freestyle machine.

Coke has taken privacy – self-exploration and discovery – and privatized it, marketed, stripped it to spreadsheet numbers, and is selling it back to us.

I might be reading a little too much into this.

But it’s simply amazing.
It’s something I never would have considered.

How else is big data being stripped from us without our knowledge?