BIG QUESTIONS.
A N S W E R S Y O U
CAN’T FIND ON
THE INTERNET.hile Facebook’s spokespeople did not reply
to our inquiries, we will ofer one clariication
in their defense: They do not “sell off” data,
technically. They sell a service to advertisers.
Looking to peddle your hemp-rope macramé
vests? Facebook will happily take your money
and use algorithms to serve your ads to a carefully curated
subset of its users. Those w ith no taste perhaps. Or no arms.
As for the “worth” of
your data, to derive a (very)
crude estimate, one could
take Facebook’s 2018 irst-
quarter revenue ($11.97
billion), divide by the num-
ber of active users (1.45
billion), and come up with
about $8.25 per quarter,
or $33 a year. But that’s not
necessarily a useful calcu-
lation. In fact, it would be
well nigh impossible for any-
one outside the company
to figure out exactly how
much an individual’s data
was worth, and it might be
difficult even for Maestro
Zuckerberg himself.
That’s because users are
not parceled out individually, but rather as constituents of
la rge popu lat ions—t uba players, or ow ners of diabet ic cats.
Note, too, that not everyone’s info is equally valuable. This,
of course, is no relection on you as a person—we’re sure
you’re the pride of your monastic yoga retreat—but merely
accounts for the reality that some people are juicier mar-
keting targets than others.
Are you a humble subsistence farmer who fashions his
own footwear and ventures beyond his native village only
to barter handicrafts for cloudy moonshine and used bicy-
cle parts? Yeah, you’re worth, um—let’s just do the mathhere... approximately nothing. Thanks for playing.
On the other hand, suppose you’re a pipe-smoking MBA
student living on a refurbished tugboat with a vintage necktie
collection, assorted parrots, and enough credit cards to deal a
f u l l ha nd of no -limit Oma ha. Then we’re get t ing somewhere.
“If you’re educated or wealthy, people will pay more
for you,” says Rahul Telang, a faculty member at Carne-
gie Mellon’s CyLab Security & Privacy Institute. “If there
are certain life changes
going on, like you’re buying
a house, or getting married,
or getting divorced, or if
you’re sick, all of that prob-
ably leads to more money
being given to target us.”
Matt Hogan, cofounder
of the startup Datacoup,
which pays people directly
for their data (a commend-
able approach, we’d say,
though a little like pay-
ing people to donate their
kidneys), says companies
traffic more than social
details. “Financial data is
extremely powerful for fore-
casting,” he says. “Future
consumption, propensity
to make payments or go delinquent, all that kind of stuf.”
Indeed, as data collection gets increasingly personal,
the efect on your life may become far more dramatic than
toaster ads that chase you around the internet. Pam Dixon,
executive director of the World Privacy Forum, says that a
proile of your data could be purchased by a healthcare plan
and used to determine your premiums. Or, if you were apply-
ing to a private college, they might buy your data to ind
out if you can aford tuition before deciding to admit you.
The real question, then, may not be what is your data worth
to others, but what is your privacy worth to you?How much money is my data worth,
when companies like Facebook sell it o?
Do you have unusual questions about how things work and why stuf happens? This is the place to ask them.
Don’t be afraid. Nobody will laugh at you here. Email [email protected].100 JULY/AUGUST _ 201 POPULARMECHANICS.COM