The taxonomy of data: making sense of an infinite, valuable resource

Despite recently losing $120 billion from its stock value within a 24-hour period — Facebook’s market capitalization going as high as $630 billion tells us one thing. Data is valuable. The Cambridge Analytica scandal, coupled with the implications of some politicians being involved, magnifies how far some will go to get their hands on information.

Data valuation has benefited internet giants significantly; however, there’s still a vast population of users who contribute to the data mines but never see a single cent.

Data: infinite, valuable, chaotic.

Blockchain technologies have what we need to assign data rights properly. A blockchain can serve as a timestamped ledger, recording data histories like artwork, documents, images, and even songs.

But while packaged data that can be itemized and sold individually is easy to classify, the majority of data in existence is difficult to categorize. It comes in the form of intangible, vague, chaotic, and unsystematized information that cannot be quantified; this kind of data ranges from habits to opinions, common identifiers, and interests, to things like viewer abandonment rates — which is the mark at which point users lost interest in a video or infographic.

These types of information are hard to quantify and classify. We’ve come up with terms for some, but even then, the classifications are still not enough considering there is probably more information on Earth than there are stars in the universe (although we’re not dismissing the possibility that we’re wrong on this, seeing as we’ve never really seen what’s beyond the edge of the observable universe).

Yet, this is the majority of information that data miners seek out, the kinds of information you see on Google analytics — the type of information that is the lifeblood of social media giants like Facebook.

The market for data isn’t restricted to advertisers. Several benefits can be obtained from predictive analytics, behavioral patterns, and data mining as a whole; such as making self-driving cars safer, fighting gun violence, curing disease, and even stopping epidemics.

Taxonomy for all data in existence — a task beyond the human brain.

Platforms like Facebook profit from ad revenue and insights — not the raw data itself. So user data is valuable only if they’re bulked together as insights for ad targeting purposes.

Individually, no standard fee structure has been established for valuing user data. So even when we can find the source of the data — the original owner — with the intention of compensating them accordingly, it’s difficult to determine the data’s monetary value without a proper classification system.

How can individuals be compensated for these uncategorized types of data — the types of data that they create enormous amounts of by going through their day-to-day digital interactions. If we don’t even have a proper way of classifying that data, then how do we put a price on it?

Before we can begin to come up with a sort of fee structure, we need to create some order, starting with classifying types of information. Then we can begin to weigh them in terms of monetary value.

Coming up with a taxonomy for data and classifying them instantly is possible, but not by the human brain. Because the production of data is infinite, uncontrollable, and follows no specific order, it seems impossible — even for the world’s brightest minds — to be able to catalog information into categories. Most pieces of information would probably qualify as several classifications at once.

Fortunately, we need not burden human brains with this burdensome — most likely infeasible — task. Artificial intelligence underlying a blockchain network can do the dirty work for us; this is what DACONOMY is working on, a process to package and value information in the world of formless data. Individuals can have their data assessed, classified, and appraised automatically by our data engines before they decide whether or not to sell it.

Using AI and the capabilities of a blockchain network, it is feasible to correct and rebuild the data economy that has been established by giant corporations into one that is far fairer for consumers. Individuals who leave their personal information subject to third-party ownership and constant surveillance through mobile phones, computers, and IoT devices deserve to be compensated for contributing their personal information to big corporations that reap the rewards of data monetization. And that is why we are working to provide a consumer and business-friendly data eco-system here at DACONOMY.