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The Economics of Data Businesses

nerdponx 5y ago
> Payment in kind: You offer a free service or tool, in exchange for data or data tracking. Example: Foursquare’s free SDKs for mobile app developers, which enable Foursquare to track mobile user location. This is not payment in kind. This is bribery. App developers are bribed to abuse their users' privacy and personal security. > Data exhaust: You collect or generate data as a by-product of your core business. ... email managers and personal finance tools all have visibility into consumer transactions; some of them use this to build data products. Apparently ethics, morals, scruples, etc. are not worth even considering, from this author's perspective.
- seesaw 5y ago
  I wonder how much data collection happens in the name of COVID. My kids’ school wants mandatory weekly testing - the provider (who is not the hospital) wants all personal info. with generous terms that they own all the data. They also threw in a HIPAA release form.
- maroonblazer 5y ago
  Whether or not any of these business models are ethical is the subject of a different article. The author is instead comparing and contrasting the different ways one could structure a business whose product is data.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
candyman 5y ago
During the football playoffs there were some silly adds from some outfit called incredible or whatever. The point that they didn't really stress was not selling your data to every other vendor out there. I don't know if it's true or not but some company should go after the space of being able to apply for a financial service (loan, credit card, quote) without getting deluged with a million emails, calls and texts because they immediately sell your lead for more $ than they can make on the product itself.
zuhayeer 5y ago
Mentioned at the footer, but Kevin Kwok's article on data content loops centered around the Rich Barton Playbook is an awesome read as well: https://kwokchain.com/2019/04/09/making-uncommon-knowledge-common/ https://kwokchain.com/2019/04/09/making-uncommon-knowledge-c...

> Payment in kind: You offer a free service or tool, in exchange for data or data tracking. Example: Foursquare’s free SDKs for mobile app developers, which enable Foursquare to track mobile user location. This is not payment in kind. This is bribery. App developers are bribed to abuse their users' privacy and personal security. > Data exhaust: You collect or generate data as a by-product of your core business. ... email managers and personal finance tools all have visibility into consumer transactions; some of them use this to build data products. Apparently ethics, morals, scruples, etc. are not worth even considering, from this author's perspective.

seesaw 5y ago
I wonder how much data collection happens in the name of COVID. My kids’ school wants mandatory weekly testing - the provider (who is not the hospital) wants all personal info. with generous terms that they own all the data. They also threw in a HIPAA release form.
maroonblazer 5y ago
Whether or not any of these business models are ethical is the subject of a different article. The author is instead comparing and contrasting the different ways one could structure a business whose product is data.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

candyman 5y ago

During the football playoffs there were some silly adds from some outfit called incredible or whatever. The point that they didn't really stress was not selling your data to every other vendor out there. I don't know if it's true or not but some company should go after the space of being able to apply for a financial service (loan, credit card, quote) without getting deluged with a million emails, calls and texts because they immediately sell your lead for more $ than they can make on the product itself.

zuhayeer 5y ago

Mentioned at the footer, but Kevin Kwok's article on data content loops centered around the Rich Barton Playbook is an awesome read as well: https://kwokchain.com/2019/04/09/making-uncommon-knowledge-common/ https://kwokchain.com/2019/04/09/making-uncommon-knowledge-c...