A letter to our users — from Measure Protocol
If you’re reading this article, you probably know something about Measure Protocol — maybe you have used the MSR app, maybe you have taken a few surveys or browsed the website. Are you still wondering about its value? Why should you care? We shed some light on those questions below. We invite you to read on!
(Alternatively, if you just happened to get here and don’t know anything about Measure Protocol, then check us out at http://www.measureprotocol.com or download the MSR app. If you’re interested in our story, check it out here.)
Over the past few years, concerns surrounding privacy have steadily grown, as well as the use (or misuse) of individual’s data by large corporations. These concerns have been exemplified by the number of large data breaches — where an organization’s database is compromised and large amounts of data, including consumers personal data is stolen or used without authorization — are widely covered in the media (think Experian and Marriott). Beyond these very public and devastating security problems, privacy has also been brought to the forefront and implementation of legislation such as GDPR, which outlines rights for consumers and sets forth a number of strict penalties.
Concurrently, market research is an industry that relies on access to consumer data to help support critical business decisions. The goal of Measure Protocol is to build an ecosystem of trust that helps facilitate fair data sharing between consumers and market researchers, advertisers, and brands. So, simply, Measure is a data marketplace where consumers earn rewards by responding to data sharing offers such as taking surveys or enabling passive data collection. These requests come from partners which may include market researchers, advertisers, and brands. At Measure, we deploy some interesting technologies including blockchain, cryptography, and others to help achieve these sharing activities, but you can read more about this in our other posts so we don’t have to get technical here.
For you, we want to achieve a few very specific things:
- Make you the most important player in this data sharing ecosystem
- Give you ownership and control of your data
- Ensure you are being paid fairly for your data, time and effort
- Protect your privacy
- Bring you the best experience
- Relentlessly improve on 1–5 above
We believe these goals can be achieved by doing the following:
Shift the power of data back to you
We choose to be data minimalists by design. This means we strive to store very little data — only what’s necessary to make the wheels turn — and leave data ownership to the individual. This means that we are not about building a centralized database and collecting everything we can about you. When you fill out one of our profile surveys, all the data stays on your device.
You can see how this model may make it more difficult for us and our partners (eliminating our ability to search a central database for the profile data we need), but we believe it is a necessary step in order for everyone involved in the process to align. With the shift of data back to you — the consumer — those requesting access to your data must now illustrate that their motives align with your drivers for participation.
Privacy is paramount
Your data is your data. We strive to provide every level of privacy possible including allowing you to store your data locally. All communication is completed using cryptography to ensure data is only shared when you chose to do so.
Transparency gives everyone accountability
Measure uses the blockchain to store basic participation data along with data/survey job ratings and how much is being paid in incentives. When you are requested to participate in a data job, we try and go above and beyond to be transparent on what is being done, what data is being shared, and under what conditions.
We’re not mobile first. We are mobile ONLY.
You spend time on your phone, and more time on your phone. Occasionally you see one of those things called a Television or a desktop computer, but where you engage is on your phone and with your family and friends. Full stop.
Being mobile only lends certain advantages surrounding fraud detection, but also provides the ability to bring the best experience to you, discouraging those clunky experiences that are best on a desktop browser.
Reputations help
If you’ve ever used a ride share service like Uber, you know that reputations work. Drivers are motivated to go above and beyond to provide the best service to maintain a positive reputation or risk losing their privilege (and their riders). Similarly, for every paid job you participate in through our app, you will be asked to rate it. These scores are provided directly back to the survey sponsor, and we use them to discourage any poor survey and data experiences. Too many low performing surveys and they lose their privilege. We will even start providing the supplier star rating as part of the survey offer. I’m sure you won’t want to participate in a 1-star survey. Similarly, members of the network who are survey speeders, attempt to manipulate the system, falsify their data or profile, will receive a low reputation score. Good behavior (from either party) fosters more offers and better paid offers.
Everyone has an array of reasons for sharing data, or for not sharing data — all are valid. Whether it is to help brands make informed decisions or to make a little extra money, everyone wins when our motivations are aligned. Hope you enjoy the service and hope you reach out to us. We love to hear from our users!
The Measure Team
As previously published on the Measure Protocol blog
