This isn't a novel assertion, but for just now un-novel it is, I'm amazed it isn't more often accompanied by the obvious conclusion: that the companies who prof

This isn't a novel assertion, but for just now un-novel it is, I'm amazed it isn't more often accompanied by the obvious conclusion: that the companies who profit from a) creating a market for personal data and then b) hoarding it also have a responsibility to be transparent about it. I'm sure a lot of people accept that premise, that if the product is free, you're the product, etc. But the ways in which that's true are deliberately obfuscated behind language like, "We collect your personal data to improve your experience/our product etc." If we can all agree that it's reasonable to pay, if not in money, then in personal data, why not have the terms presented and advertised clearly? I'm asking rhetorically, because of course if the incentives lay in transparency, a company would be transparent, therefore if they aren't transparent, the incentives obviously lie elsewhere.