Are you kidding? Twitter, for example, made ~400 million dollars last year selling data. Several federal agencies have firehose access via contractors. Any of those companies would love the contract to correlate the information provided with their internal records.

Isn't forcing users to divulge this information a way around paying for data exports?

That's where the next billion Twitter and Facebook users will come from: forced participation tied to government services and benefits. You can easily imagine a dystopia where a FB account is required to collect Social Security or Medicare benefits.

My pet dystopian vision was always basic income associated with a government-tied-in Alternative Reality game, with mandatory in-game outside-world activities to collect points that can be traded in for bonus BI or discounts for everything purchased with your BI card or BI card cashback limits, etc.

With China developing Social Credit and US government interest in social media data, the "in-game outside-world activities" might as well be bypassed. Have a 'good' Facebook history, or else.

And alt user ids tuned specifically for this purpose!

> They can’t possibly benefit from this...

Are you kidding me? This is information that won’t add any tangable value to the actual state of affairs, yet money will be payed for the information. This reeks of a deal struck with the big social behind the wheel. They get Money from the tax payers for sharing information with no need to prove actual added value, just the promis of hiring some key people in well paying positions down the Line when it’s less objctional.