You Should Trade Your Data for Value — Here’s How
Think your personal data is worthless? Think again.
Let’s explore a simple approach to a very complex question:
What is your personal data worth in the digital economy?
The World Economic Forum said in 2017 that the value of personalized data would be 1 trillion euros ($1.12T) by 2020. Is it so? Not sure, as I have not seen another report from them yet, but that’s surely a big number. It’s forecasted that the digital advertising market, which relies heavily on personal data, will reach $985 billion in 2025. That’s really close to $1 trillion.
Regardless of the projections and math, one thing is for sure — personal data is indeed worth something. Especially when you take what all the social networks, search engines, enterprise database monoliths and other data predators disguised as customer relationship platforms have on you.
The fact remains though when it comes to one person (you), your data is not worth that much in bits and bytes. Estimates range from $0.10 to $100 in the USA. But what if you live in South Africa, India, Ghana, or Peru - what is your data worth then?
Who can really put a price on personal data?
Yes, pricing and attributing value to the personal data marketplace is subjective. It depends on a number of factors, such as who needs the data and for what purpose, and what the return on investment will be for the purchaser’s business.
In the case of Facebook/Meta, the ROI is very high, as every dollar they make is linked to knowing more about you. This is why their business model and tactics to acquire your personal data at the lowest cost possible (it does cost them), has led to some nefarious practices being dealt with by regulators, albeit rather slowly.
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So how do you, as a single amazing human being, get value from your personal data? The answer lies in the question itself.
Seek value, not only cash.
If you ask to be paid only in cash, you will get market rates for your data. However - if you ask for value in exchange for your data, then the game changes!
It is simple really: scarcity drives value, and value is in the eye of the beholder (you).
And only you decide who you share your life (data) with, where you spend your time, and more importantly for brands, where you spend your hard-earned 💰.
So instead of throwing your data at social and search platforms by trying to be awesome — be awesome and practice some restraint. Do not tell the world everything, hold back in sharing your plans, what you want to buy, when your next big life event is.
As Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel said: “Elegance is refusal”. So be elegant and refuse to share data you don’t want to share.
So what should you do?
Hodl your personal data, your thoughts, and your planned actions (for non-crypto people: “hodl” means hold onto it).
Then trade/lease your data (your personal data, intentions, emotions, and experiences) for cash. You should never outright sell your data, but rather lease it to brands for a duration and a purpose. Brands hate not knowing what you want or what you feel, or when you will buy, so they will pay more to know.
More importantly, trade your data for value! This value might be in the form of:
- discounts, special offers as you shared the perfect data with the brand so they could sell you an amazing product
- the best life experience on vacation, as you shared the right data, at the right time with the best brands you trust to deliver to your expectations
- recovery from an illness, as you were NOT scared to share the right data with your doctor (under agreed terms or use), which helped in diagnosing the best path to your recovery
In a digital world, your thoughts and actions are all digitized into data, so take care of this new asset class (yes, data is an asset, and if you don’t manage it, then you won't win in a digital future). You can do this on Profila, a platform that is built to serve you as a partner and facilitates the fair exchange of value on your behalf with brands as customers.
Tell brands in your life that you want a better relationship on your terms. Tell them:
“If you’re keen to know what I really want, check my Profila.”
To make it easier for you to get value from sharing data, we at Profila have created the Zero Knowledge Token. Abbreviated as ZKT (or Zeke, as we like to call it), it is a crypto asset (native token minted on Cardano) that makes it simpler to store and exchange value between yourself and brands anywhere in the world.
We also use the token to incentivize the right behavior, by encouraging you to learn about privacy and by helping you to build the best digital Profila (profile) of yourself and share it with the brands you trust.
The token will also be used in many more exciting ways in the future, so I encourage you to read our white paper at ico.profila.com. There you will also discover our ambitions in zero-knowledge advertising, a system we believe will allow you to remain anonymous whilst still receiving relevant content and adverts, that you want, from brands you trust.
Join us in building a new type of online relationship, where you can get the true value of your personal data!
