A New York graduate student is planning
to sell his personal online data for two dollars a day and develop tools
to help others do the same. So what would happen if everyone took back
control of the record of his/her own digital activity?
Up to now, gathering Internet users’ personal
data has basically been the province of new technology sector players,
which then – in return for the services they provide free of charge to
their online users – mine the data in order to sell advertising space.
Now
Federico Zannier, an electronic engineer and graduate student at New York University, is aiming to shift the goalposts. He has launched a
campaign on crowdfunding site Kickstarter
for backing for a project that will enable people to collect and sell
their personal online data. A report from the Boston Consulting Group
estimates that in 2020 the European market for personal data will be
worth a trillion euro. If ordinary Internet surfers manage to take back
ownership of of their online data and sell to their preferred bidder,
the advertising industry’s current business model might well be due for
significant change.
Owning your own data
For around fifty days in a row, Zannier recorded his personal online
activity, listing the addresses of websites he visited, his GPS
locations, plus mapping all his Internet clicks. The IT systems expert
then cleaned up this data before transforming it into images with the
aid of data visualisation software. He is now offering to sell a day’s
worth of data for two dollars. Even more significantly however, he is
planning to develop a plug-in browser extension, plus an iPhone mobile
app – tools that would enable anyone to track and collect his/her own
data. In launching this initiative, Zannier foresees the day when
anyone and everyone will be able to monetise their own ‘digital
footprint’, putting an end to the era when web-marketers can use the
information with no payment whatsoever to the data originators. Eight
days away from the end of his Kickstarter campaign, Zannier had already
received offers (under the Kickstarter system, no funds are called in
unless the requester receives offers to his full amount) of over $2,000
from 175 would-be donors.
Era of owner-monetised data coming soon?
Zannier’s initiative raises basic questions around personal data processing. Explains
Paul Olivier Gibert, head of the Paris-based consulting firm
Digital & Ethics,
which specialises in personal data protection: “At the current time
there are two ways of monetising what we do online. The first is to sell
your data directly to firms, as Zannier is planning to do. The second
is to exchange your data for a service, coupons, reduced price travel
ticket, etc.” Firms such as
Personal and the French startup
Yes Profil
give Internet users the option of deciding who to give their data to
and whether they insist on receiving a service in return. “However, at
the moment data collection remains a tedious process which not everyone
is able to perform,” Gibert points out. “What’s certain however is that
there’s a colossal market for personal data and that people are becoming
increasingly aware of the value of their digital footprint.” The
Digital & Ethics boss believes that in future intermediary firms
enabling people to take control of their own data will become major
players in the field of personalised advertising.
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