An argument that companies should pay users for their data

Re:An argument that companies should pay users for their data by WingH on Thursday March 08, 2018 @08:21AM (#16544135)

But the value of my data alone probably is worth less than a dollar to Google and Facebook. Given the choice of getting paid a dollar, or using it for free (in exchange for them using my data), I would choose the latter.

Only in aggregate is it worth a lot.

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Re:An argument that companies should pay users for their data by amelius on Thursday March 08, 2018 @08:24AM (#16544147)

In that case, I would pay Google and Facebook a dollar, and keep my data safe from their prying eyes.

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Re:An argument that companies should pay users for their data by WingH on Thursday March 08, 2018 @08:28AM (#16544164)

I would do that too.

But the notion of getting paid for your data, when its worth so little by itself is not appealing.

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Re:An argument that companies should pay users for their data by saas_co_de on Thursday March 08, 2018 @08:55AM (#16544299)

> But the value of my data alone probably is worth less than a dollar

Calculating the value of your data is pretty easy actually. Just take the market cap of the company divided by users to get an average.

Google is at about $700B with may ~2B global users, so global average is more like $350/user. The value of US users is probably 10X less developed parts of world (based on ad rates) so US users are worth more like $3000.

You are undervaluing yourself :) which is how they win.

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Re:An argument that companies should pay users for their data by marcinzm on Thursday March 08, 2018 @09:07AM (#16544367)

>Calculating the value of your data is pretty easy actually.

No it's not. You're mixing up the value of the data with the value of your attention. The world has made a killing off of advertising long before personalization came about so saying it's all due to personalization is a bit silly imho.

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Re:An argument that companies should pay users for their data by deong on Thursday March 08, 2018 @10:02AM (#16544685)

It's also conflating a bunch of stuff that goes into Google's valuation that isn't directly tied to ownership of your data. Once upon a time, Google just made a search engine, and that search engine quickly took over the world. Google made a lot of money plopping ads on search results long before you could create a Google account or store all your email there. Presumably, the technical ability to build products like that is worth actual money. If Google deleted all personal data, the company would not be worth $0.

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Re:An argument that companies should pay users for their data by saas_co_de on Thursday March 08, 2018 @10:21AM (#16544834)

> If Google deleted all personal data, the company would not be worth $0

They would be worth less than zero because without the personal data they would have no ad revenue to subsidize their money losing loss-leader ventures that only exist to collect data and/or suck people in to watch advertising.

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Re:An argument that companies should pay users for their data by marcinzm on Thursday March 08, 2018 @10:32AM (#16544909)

Google made plenty of money from search and search advertising before personalization.

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Re:An argument that companies should pay users for their data by saas_co_de on Thursday March 08, 2018 @12:15PM (#16545832)

What you search for is personal data.

The search engine is just a targeting mechanism for ads. You tell Google what you are searching for and they serve you a targeted ad. That has always been the business model.

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Re:An argument that companies should pay users for their data by marcinzm on Thursday March 08, 2018 @02:00PM (#16546686)

By that logic an ad in a travel magazine is using your personal data.

I personally wouldn't consider search ads with no data being stored or user level history being used as not being personalized or user targeted. They're to me no different from an ad in magazine or a static banner ad on a web page.

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