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Andrew Yang's Data Dividend Project is pushing Big Tech to pay users for data

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Re: Andrew Yang's Data Dividend Project is pushing Big Tech to pay users for data

#91

Post by waldoh »

jerf wrote: post #26

It doesn't work. There isn't enough money in the data for anyone to care. Your entire data load might be worth $100 a year . The only reason it funds massive industries is cost-effective aggregation by dirt-cheap computer power. I ran the numbers on Facebook a while back: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19462402 It comes out that they're making roughly $17/yr in annual revenue per user. Revenue , not profit . Cr…

Wont that 100 dollars of data be worth exponentially more if companies had to pay us for collecting it?

Re: Andrew Yang's Data Dividend Project is pushing Big Tech to pay users for data

#92

Post by RussianCow »

prostoalex wrote: post #87
ska wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if the point of it all isn't to make the consumer money, but to make companies less indiscriminate about gathering and storing data?

Can't you achieve the same effect at user level by faking some data + messing with tracking via Firefox containers + Ghostery + Cookies AutoDelete?

And how many people are realistically going to go through that effort?

Re: Andrew Yang's Data Dividend Project is pushing Big Tech to pay users for data

#93

Post by [deleted] »

acituan wrote: post #69
jerf wrote: post #26

It doesn't work. There isn't enough money in the data for anyone to care. Your entire data load might be worth $100 a year . The only reason it funds massive industries is cost-effective aggregation by dirt-cheap computer power. I ran the numbers on Facebook a while back: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19462402 It comes out that they're making roughly $17/yr in annual revenue per user. Revenue , not profit . Cr…

> $17/yr in annual revenue per user Revenue per user is a very misleading way to evaluate the value when talking about a hyper-global operation. It is as useful as averaging the global price of a loaf of bread, which would be priced as $2-3 in the US but a few cents in a third world country. This is very applicable to ad revenue because ultimately ads are capturing the pricing levels of real economy, and bulk of the…

[deleted]

Re: Andrew Yang's Data Dividend Project is pushing Big Tech to pay users for data

#94

Post by AlexandrB »

What I'd like to see come out of this is some way to evaluate the value of data collected so that it can be compared year-to-year. One reason the antitrust argument is hard to make is that the average Facebook user pays nothing and it's hard to argue that, for example, Facebook's monopolistic behaviour is harming the consumer. If we could track the "cost" to the consumer in terms of the value of data collected and observe an increase over time it would lend credence to a case for antitrust action.

Re: Andrew Yang's Data Dividend Project is pushing Big Tech to pay users for data

#95

Post by asciident »

erentz wrote: post #55
jerf wrote: post #26

It doesn't work. There isn't enough money in the data for anyone to care. Your entire data load might be worth $100 a year . The only reason it funds massive industries is cost-effective aggregation by dirt-cheap computer power. I ran the numbers on Facebook a while back: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19462402 It comes out that they're making roughly $17/yr in annual revenue per user. Revenue , not profit . Cr…

When I see these breakdowns I think I’d pay $17 per year for Facebook without all of the ads and tracking and data mining and knowing I was just getting a good service optimized for its customers. Why not ban tracking and ad targeting and selling personal data, and force that business model to go extinct, and now they have to start charging for service and their users become actual customers.

I would not, I'd rather they target me with personalized ads like they are doing now. I hate paying for things, and I imagine neither would 99% of users.

Since me and the other 99% of people contribute most of the value to Facebook for you, would you be willing to subsidize the other 99% of people and pay $1700/year?

Re: Andrew Yang's Data Dividend Project is pushing Big Tech to pay users for data

#98

Post by chr1 »

hinkley wrote: post #71
awillen wrote: post #6

I'm all for people controlling their data and being fully informed of how it's being used, but I just don't understand the idea that you should be paid for the data that you give to companies when you choose to use their products. The payment that you get is the products. You don't get a check from Google, but you get to use Google, which is an incredibly useful tool. I like Yang, but I think he's barking up the wron…

I think there's a category error here around 'choice'. Who is choosing? I can walk into a store and look around without making a commitment to buy a product. I may leave realizing that there is nothing for me here. I chose not to become a customer. Or I chose to be a customer and there was a ritual exchanging of gifts and information which is relatively clear to all parties. Websites don't work that way. I can't 'bro…

The difference is that a store doesn't spend significant amount of their resource on you when you just look around, but most of websites do.

Suggesting that sites do not have right to retain information about what you asked them to do after you've read an article or created an account, would be similar to saying that bookstore should allow you to read entire books standing in the store, or that they can't use their security cameras because you may be visible on them.

Re: Andrew Yang's Data Dividend Project is pushing Big Tech to pay users for data

#99

Post by [deleted] »

jerf wrote: post #26

It doesn't work. There isn't enough money in the data for anyone to care. Your entire data load might be worth $100 a year . The only reason it funds massive industries is cost-effective aggregation by dirt-cheap computer power. I ran the numbers on Facebook a while back: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19462402 It comes out that they're making roughly $17/yr in annual revenue per user. Revenue , not profit . Cr…

[deleted]

Re: Andrew Yang's Data Dividend Project is pushing Big Tech to pay users for data

#100

Post by AlexandrB »

baron816 wrote: post #51

Why would you pay for something people are giving you for free? If people are volunteering that information, I think it’s fine to use it to finance the free product they’re getting. I’m totally free to not use Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc.

I would like you to explain to me how you could avoid using Google given that Google Analytics is present in some 70% of the top 10,000 websites and reCaptcha also has huge penetration.
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