Pay Me for My Data #privchat

Every Tuesday at 12noon Eastern, 11am Central, there is a Twitter chat on privacy called #privchat.

My views on privacy are no secret and it has been really interesting to see the evolution and continued discussion before, during and after #privchat. Today was no exception. Someone suggested “track me or charge me,” meaning we allow companies to track our movements and what not online, or pay a fee, say $5/month, to NOT be tracked. Aside from the fact that whomever is collecting the $5 a month has to track us to make sure we pay, something else struck m, especially with Facebook’s $50 billion valuation after Goldman Sachs investment.

Facebook is compiled completely of our information. Links we post, status updates, Pages we “like,” photos we upload, etc. Google improves its search in part from all the searches we perform. Our data is clearly valuable because both companies, and many others, make money off what we provide.

So here’s my thought: pay me a percentage of each sale you get from my data. In other words, I want a cut of the proceeds you make by sharing my data…check that…I want a cut of the proceeds you get by me choosing, CHOOSING, to share my data. You profit. Advertisers or you other “clients” and I profit. Plus, if I get a cut, I want to know from where. That means I will hold you accountable for what you do with my data. That means you better pay attention to what you do with my data. Without my data, you are SOL because I can take my data somewhere else. Better yet, I can hoard my data and bleed you dry.

Information is power, they say, and with the Internet, information is also money.

So if you’re going to use my information, give me a cut of the proceeds. You might be surprised at the amount of data you get in return for a slice of the profits. And think of how much better targeting you can do, and what other avenues you can reach that would otherwise remain out of reach.