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>These problems can’t be solved with existing law. The Federal Trade Commission has strained to understand personal data markets — a $156-billion-a-year industr
by otoburb 12y ago
>These problems can’t be solved with existing law. The Federal Trade Commission has strained to understand personal data markets — a $156-billion-a-year industry [...]
It kills me that this is a $156B/yr industry, yet asymptotically zero of the money paid for various lists are going to the actual individuals whose information is being bought, whether mundane emails or more detailed profile attributes.
The adage "if I had a penny for every time ..." would seem to align various parties' incentives. Perhaps somebody should release a product based on the underlying premise that some emails tied to some shadow of your identity will inevitably be sold, so might as well set a floor price of "a couple of cents" as per the article and watch in bittersweet resignation as the pennies flow in.
- yahelc 12y agoSuch a service exists: https://datacoup.com/ https://datacoup.com/
- tjr 12y agoSo with about 7 billion people on the planet, on average our personal data is worth about $22/year? Rather than getting that $22 sent to me directly, can I pay $22/year and opt out?
- cwkoss 12y agoThe problem is marketers would then be only interested in those with enough disposable income to pay the opt out fee.
- lumberjack 12y agoBut then the people would realize the potential value of the information they put online and will become prone to self-censoring making this voluntarily bought data much less valuable.
- olefoo 12y agoEcon 101 quiz: 1. As a commodity becomes scarcer it's price tends to go in which direction? a. up b. down As this is an open internet test you may wish to refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_and_demand http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_and_demand for the answer.
- vegedor 12y agoFor one, there is also critical mass. Also, it's a two way street: As the price goes up, the demand tends to go in which direction?