Can you change your privacy? Big Data Age Wonders!

A US-reputation website is about to release a product that allows people to sell their privacy data in exchange for discounts or benefits, and can finally use their own data to change their pocket money.

The internet has a fixed business model: Large companies provide fee-based services to companies by collecting user's privacy data to support the company's development while compensating users with free web services. Think of it, Facebook, Baidu, Google and other sites are such a model, users free of charge products, but can not get visible benefits.

By the end of the year, Internet users will have a chance to cash in their privacy data, which will be a more active identity in the Internet's profit model, when they are no longer the passive users of the Internet. The opportunity is provided by Reputation.com's founder and President Michael Fertik. The reputation website will release a new product by the end of the year, when users can share some of their privacy data with other companies in exchange for discounts or other benefits. For example, allowing airlines to see your income can get a certain number of loyalty points or compensation for the next flight upgrade.

The idea of how Internet users can profit from their data has been discussed in recent years, Fertik is naturally involved in the discussion, but his ideas have not been put into practice before, since no product or platform has been able to allow users to determine what data the enterprise can collect, how to use the data, And how to price and so on.

"Today, the basic business model of the Internet is that companies can get your data without notifying you, and you can use it at will, and you don't know where it is." "Fertik said.

Fertik himself has discussed the application of "Consumer databases" (Fertik so called the new product) with a number of businesses and marketing staff. Although he himself is now unwilling to disclose what specific will provide consumers what kind of trading model, but can be learned that most airlines are very interested in this product, "and our exchange of airlines are willing to provide special users with Platinum membership and other senior membership." But it's hard for airlines to find such a member. ”

Reputation website was founded in 2006, has now received a total of 67 million U.S. dollars in financing, currently mainly to enterprises and individuals to provide information discovery products and a variety of copyright databases. Fertik said that the company already has more than 1 million users, it means that there are 1 million users of the database. The data contains information about the user's home address, buying habits, career background, salary and income status, which can be traded as privacy data and receive preferential service from the enterprise.

Although the number of users is far less than Facebook, reputation is very confident about his data because it is more useful than the user's point of praise on social networking sites, and reputation has been patented.

Opposite voice

Peter Fader, a professor at Wharton, who specializes in data analysis marketing, questioned the way the reputation website was taken, saying reputation was not attractive enough to attract consumers and businesses to private-data deals.

Fader said: "Although reputation can temporarily attract some enterprises, but this data is not very useful." "He thinks consumer behavior is more important, which is why many companies want to interact with consumers in a variety of ways to get their privacy data."

Fader also predicts that few consumers are willing to hand over the management and trading of private data to a commercial company, "the management of user privacy data is far more complex than the enterprise thinks." ”

Shane Green, founder and president of Personal company, disagreed with Fader's view. His company provides consumers with Web sites, application privacy data storage space, although the number of users is not more than 1 million, but as media coverage of privacy disputes is increasing, users are generally concerned about the handling of privacy data. Founded in 2009, Personal has now received 15.7 million dollars in financing.

Personal has offered similar products to reputation, but has now changed the product plan. Shane Green thinks reputation's approach makes more sense, "I think there's a big market for privacy data trading, and that marketing will shift to more precise direction (if consumers don't agree to deal with private data, then marketing advertising becomes less accurate, Conversely, if the consumer agrees to the transaction data, then the marketing of the enterprise will be very accurate. ”

Green's experience with consumer cars describes the privacy data trade, "if consumers put the information they want to change on the platform for trading, and only one car retailer is willing to buy the data, even if the retailer has to pay hundreds of dollars in the transaction price, But at least it will ensure that only one retailer is involved in the consumer's car-buying process, and retailers are more committed to luring consumers into buying. "Consumers will certainly get the biggest discounts," he said.

Green says Personal is interested in developing products like reputation that allow consumers to choose the data they want to trade, and to get discounts or discounts. In fact, a long time ago, the United States has a car and Driver Web site to provide similar services, but only the data in the field of auto trading, the retailer can obtain the registered owner of the car model, vehicle age and other information.

Small part of the comments: if the concept of privacy data to expand, such as the type of questionnaire to do points for prizes for the site is also involved in the early participants in data trading.