Alternative data is evolving, primitive uses included getting a better handle on a companies monthly active users, sales numbers, etc for that quarter. Funds like bridgewater and such are beginning to use alt data for macro economic analysis and bespoke macro economic indicators. If I can predict GDP, inflation, etc before everyone else, I can make huge money. Theres more going on here than it looks, the depth of ways in which different data sets can be used is enormous. With mobile location data I can tell how many people are in Walmart sure, but I can also tell how much activity there is in the factories, using that as a proxy for economic output. The amount of things that can and are being done are not bounded, most of it is never put out into the public.