Comment by MauranKilom
5 years ago
I mean, you fundamentally "pay" with your private data already in the sense that those services use your "payment" in order to offer you the service in the first place.
You could force businesses to put a number on it. But in general websites don't just sit on the money they make from ads - they spend it on hosting costs and whatever other business expenses. Note that I'm not arguing whether some of them are still making a fortune with it - but requiring that users are paid for using a service that incurs costs for the other party is... backwards?
Yes, you’re paying with your data already. But you’re generally not able to ask to be paid for it. We’re treating peoples data like a public good that anyone can profit off of - except the individual who owns and generates it. That’s why there's got to be a way to make it possible for the market to properly manage this market on its own-once the market participants are given a legally reinforced way to interact as a market with supply and demand.