Re: <nettime> paying users for their data

[Wolfie Christl <wolfie@t0.or.at>]

On 24.07.2014 11:29, Felix Stalder wrote:
> If you divide the 30 cents income by the 60 hours work, the you end up
> with an hourly-wage of $.005.
>
> Now this is obviously the roughest of ballpark estimates you can make --
> and I would be happy to see a better one -- but on the face of it,
> it seems to indicate that viewing one personal data as an economic asset
> is really a lousy idea, no matter how you slice it.

Maybe the other way round: If users would have been paid for their data,
business models driven by personal data would be less attractive or
would look different at least. Additionally it heavily depends on which
data is being sold: According to an OECD report [1] bankruptcy info is
worth $25/record, employment history about $14/record and educational
history about $12/record. Background check or employment screening
packages are sometimes worth $100-300/query. If companies really start
selling aggregated data & scores based on digital behaviour, on body &
health data and on various sensors at home and workplaces at large scale
this will be much more valueable than today's profits mainly based on
advertising.

Anyway it's a lousy idea and it doesn't solve any of the fundamental
problems of corporate surveillance. Users love being tracked - even when
they get (nearly) nothing for it. They're using loyality cards since
ages, small (pseudo) incentives are sufficient to make them participate
in nearly anything.

[1]
http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/futurium/sites/futurium/files/futurium/library/OECD%20-%202013%20-%20Exploring%20the%20Economics%20of%20Personal%20Data.pdf

Cheers
Wolfie

-- 
Cracked Labs
http://crackedlabs.org


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