4 ms·

What if people were paid for their data?

18 points by koolba 8y ago

johngalt 8y ago
Data gathering is valuable only because it's a concentration of a huge number of very low value things. Think of it like a dam and reservoir at the drainage of a major watershed. You can position things to collect all the rain and snow melt over a large area. But it's not like you are going to pay everyone for each rain drop.
x2f10 8y ago
How much is an individual's data worth? Is it enough to pay for an ongoing Google / Facebook account?
ahartman00 8y ago
I'm really fascinated to see how the next 5-10 years play out for the news industry. They seem really focused on google and facebook, who have a great deal of control over the flow of traffic to the news sites. The EU in 2014, has even tried to get google to pay for headlines and snippets [1]. And they just decided not to go ahead with a similar plan [2]. Yet the news seem to ignore the isps, despite their willingness to actually alter content in traffic to display ads. [3][4][5] I feel that they are stepping over dollars to pick up dimes? Perhaps I am biased, but one of those seems like more of a threat to me.(Yes, I know about https) Where is the constant barrage of net neutrality opinion pieces? Are they not worried? Now they want to talk about paying users for data. From the heading on the article: "Our site uses cookies to deliver relevant messages during your visit, such as presenting our latest offers". Obviously they know which articles I am interested in(which products might i buy), but I have heard they keep track of how long it takes me to read it(are speed readers more affluent?), and where people stop reading(short attention span correlated to increases spending impulsiveness?). Am I going to get paid to read the news? This is a very valuable service I provide. Yet the economist charges(which I am in favor of), and complains about the free services(which I find really convenient and cheap). Are news/data collection companies going to be exempt? Are they in favor of paying users? I guess seeing how the GDPR unfolds will be interesting wrt the news. 1. http://www.niemanlab.org/2014/12/the-fight-to-get-google-to-pay-for-news-continues-in-europe/ http://www.niemanlab.org/2014/12/the-fight-to-get-google-to-... 2. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44712475 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44712475 3. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/atts-free-wi-fi-hotspot-injects-extra-ads-on-non-att-websites/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/atts-... 4. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/11/verizon-x-uidh https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/11/verizon-x-uidh 5. https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2016/12/comcast-still-uses-mitm-javascript-injection-serve-unwanted-ads-messages/ https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2016/12/comcast-s...

18 points by koolba 8y ago

Data gathering is valuable only because it's a concentration of a huge number of very low value things. Think of it like a dam and reservoir at the drainage of a major watershed. You can position things to collect all the rain and snow melt over a large area. But it's not like you are going to pay everyone for each rain drop.

x2f10 8y ago

How much is an individual's data worth? Is it enough to pay for an ongoing Google / Facebook account?

ahartman00 8y ago

I'm really fascinated to see how the next 5-10 years play out for the news industry. They seem really focused on google and facebook, who have a great deal of control over the flow of traffic to the news sites. The EU in 2014, has even tried to get google to pay for headlines and snippets [1]. And they just decided not to go ahead with a similar plan [2]. Yet the news seem to ignore the isps, despite their willingness to actually alter content in traffic to display ads. [3][4][5] I feel that they are stepping over dollars to pick up dimes? Perhaps I am biased, but one of those seems like more of a threat to me.(Yes, I know about https) Where is the constant barrage of net neutrality opinion pieces? Are they not worried? Now they want to talk about paying users for data. From the heading on the article: "Our site uses cookies to deliver relevant messages during your visit, such as presenting our latest offers". Obviously they know which articles I am interested in(which products might i buy), but I have heard they keep track of how long it takes me to read it(are speed readers more affluent?), and where people stop reading(short attention span correlated to increases spending impulsiveness?). Am I going to get paid to read the news? This is a very valuable service I provide. Yet the economist charges(which I am in favor of), and complains about the free services(which I find really convenient and cheap). Are news/data collection companies going to be exempt? Are they in favor of paying users? I guess seeing how the GDPR unfolds will be interesting wrt the news. 1. http://www.niemanlab.org/2014/12/the-fight-to-get-google-to-pay-for-news-continues-in-europe/ http://www.niemanlab.org/2014/12/the-fight-to-get-google-to-... 2. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44712475 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44712475 3. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/atts-free-wi-fi-hotspot-injects-extra-ads-on-non-att-websites/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/atts-... 4. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/11/verizon-x-uidh https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/11/verizon-x-uidh 5. https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2016/12/comcast-still-uses-mitm-javascript-injection-serve-unwanted-ads-messages/ https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2016/12/comcast-s...