The Price of Data

In tracking the technological developments over the last half century, the picture that Moore’s law paints drives us to a common conclusion: with companies making headway into quantum computing and artificial intelligence, we are no doubt at the cusp of unprecedented change and growth. Data is collected and processed in massive quantities (thus generating the term ‘big data’) much larger than before, and while creating opportunities to better serve its intended audience, it has also generated a flurry of discussion in relation to personal privacy.

 

Combine data collection with machine learning and artificial intelligence advancements, and companies can refine and boost their efforts at targeting and personalization. It is small wonder that Kuneva, European Consumer Commissioner, already in 2009 remarked that “[personal] data is the new oil of the internet and the new currency of the digital world”[1] at the Roundtable on Online Data Collection, Targeting and Profiling held in Brussels.

 

So…personal data appears to be worth something.[2] Yet, so many of us are signing away rights to our data without a second thought. We’ve been trading our information for products, or services. If our data is indeed worth something, surely we deserve to know what, and how much?

 

Artists have picked up on the idea – a collaboration between cybersecurity enterprise Kaspersky Lab and artist Ben Eine gave rise to “The Data Dollar Store”, where consumers could trade, or rather, pay for, memorabilia using data such as photographs or their text message history.[3] This made the exchange of data for a product or service much more transparent, because each transaction would involve the consumer consciously taking out data (as though it was a form of actual, tangible, currency) in order to pay for the product.

 

A pertinent point emerges from this, which revolves around the difficulty of putting a monetary price on data. How many photographs should I have to give up for a t-shirt? Are some pictures or conversations worth more than others? Some say our data is worth at least $240 a year,[4] and theories regarding the creation of a data marketplace have surfaced, where those who own the data are ‘compensated according to the privacy loss they incur’.[5] Evidently, these are issues that have to be sorted out, and it seems that no one really knows how or where to start, although there appears to be startups building on the concept, such as Chime.in, a social networking site, which was experimenting with giving participants a share of the advertising revenue.[6]

 

Sure, sharing data is an act that promises benefits to all – increased personalization for the consumer, increased profits for the business. But if data is worth so much, perhaps consumers ataeserve to know exactly how much their information is worth, so that we can start using it wisely. As David Emm, Principle Security Researcher at Kaspersky Lab, remarked, “[customers] should value their data, as much as the money in their wallets and purses”.[7]

[1] http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-09-156_en.htm

[2] https://www.androidcentral.com/on-privacy

[3] https://gdpr.report/news/2017/09/27/forget-british-pound-can-personal-data-used-real-currency/

[4] https://medium.com/wibson/how-much-is-your-data-worth-at-least-240-per-year-likely-much-more-984e250c2ffa

[5] https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2017/12/223045-a-theory-of-pricing-private-data/fulltext

[6] https://www.technologyreview.com/s/426064/a-social-network-that-pays-you/

[7] https://www.kaspersky.com/about/press-releases/2017_data-dollar-the-new-currency-based-on-the-value-of-personal-data

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2 comments on “The Price of Data”

  1. You raise a good point in regards to what is our personal data worth? With this day and age, it is almost second nature to be sharing data. It is almost a part of who we are. But, when we think about the “Data Dollar Store”, data exchange seems like a tangible thing. How would we even start with this monetary price? As you mention, these are issues that are to be sorted out, but who will do it? It this the next start-up? We care so much about our memories, our past data, that I wouldn’t be surprised if this were to become an actual business. In retrospect, it already is – we are just giving it away for free. It will be interesting to see if this concept gets taken on and what the value of personal data will become.

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  2. I believe that giving monetary price of data will be very difficult to apply and when this happens it will take some time for people to start engaging in economic transactions even if this is for their own benefit. After the scandal with Cambridge Analytical, I was really curious to see what would happen and how things in terms of personal privacy will change. In the end, although people were furious about what happened, didn’t anything really change… Companies are moving much faster than the consumers and for that reason I think that they will have been benefit a lot before consumers understand how much their personal data is valued.

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