Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My private information is worth $30

blog.melashri.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 67 posts

Re: My private information is worth $30

#51

Post by spwa4 »

dmurray wrote: post #46
spwa4 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh that's easy. There's a business model at play here. The point of this information is to make you spend more, and the value of that information is something like 1%-2% (goods) to 30% (of things like credit card fees you pay) of what you spend more if the shops around you know this information. So from your perspective, the net value of the information is negative. Very negative in most cases. The power of this mode…

Do I spend more, or on different things? And do I get any extra value out of the extra things I buy? Most people spend approximately all of their disposable income. The information is valuable to marketers fighting to divide up that pie, not to increase the total spent. If it does significantly boost the amount of money spent and thus the velocity of money, should governments consider publishing everyone's PII as a w…

> The information is valuable to marketers fighting to divide up that pie, not to increase the total spent.

That's why Google is receiving more money than the information is worth.

Re: My private information is worth $30

#52

Post by hsbauauvhabzb »

benterix wrote: post #45

This is actual problem in general. As a rule, I never give my personal information online anywhere, always use fake info. However, there are a couple of cases when real info is necessary. If it's just my real name and phone number like for booking.com, that's maybe acceptable - just one weak point, little PII. However, an institution like an university requires a bit more, like a copy my ID or a photo. And based on t…

Your data is probably on a million systems regardless. While minimizing risk is great, I feel like it’s sorta a drop in the bucket. You need to rent a house, and pay a phone bill

Re: My private information is worth $30

#53

Post by diab0lic »

Intermernet wrote: post #40
autoexec wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is my opinion that, as with anything that can be copied infinitely for free, his (and my) personal information is worth $0. This would include all software, every movie, song, book, photograph, and TV show available anywhere. I'm glad that the rest of society has decided to place the value of those types of things a little higher than you do. The multi-billion dollar a year industry of buying and selling our mos…

The problem is that "Free Market" economics (which some people still argue is a valid economic theory for some reason) states that the market will decide what things are worth. The market decided a long time ago that movies, songs, books, photographs etc were, in fact, worth nothing. That's the effect of digital media. It's completely incompatible with the free market. Weirdly enough, the people who were most vocal a…

> The market decided a long time ago that movies, songs, books, photographs etc were, in fact, worth nothing. That's the effect of digital media. It's completely incompatible with the free market.

This is such a willfully ignorant take, it’s wild. Anyone who has a cursory understanding of game theory can see that if this were true a simple recursion would occur:

1. Everyone would pirate movies/tv/books. 2. There would be $0 in producing media. 3. Significantly less media would be produced. Anything capital intensive would be gone. 4. Demand for anything that could be produced would skyrocket. Imagine putting together a blockbuster film when the world hasn’t seen one in a century. 5. People would pay money for the product of 4.

Just because we can get something for $0 doesn’t make it worth $0. I could enslave my neighbors and make them work for me, that doesn’t make human labor worth $0.

Re: My private information is worth $30

#54

Post by 1313ed01 »

CrulesAll wrote: post #9
Raesan wrote: post #4

What I thought was most interesting was the statement at the very end: "The poetic nature of writing in grievance in Arabic is much more effective than in English." Differences between languages are so interesting to me. Anyone here know Arabic and feel the same way as the author? What makes Arabic different in that sense?

I just watched the film about Spotify "The Playlist". It took a few minutes before I picked up that it was dubbed. I switched back to Norwegian with English subtitles and the film became instantly enjoyable. All languages hold a beauty. "Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam"

TV series, like the company, is Swedish, so probably that language.

Re: My private information is worth $30

#55

Post by Intermernet »

diab0lic wrote: post #53
Intermernet wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that "Free Market" economics (which some people still argue is a valid economic theory for some reason) states that the market will decide what things are worth. The market decided a long time ago that movies, songs, books, photographs etc were, in fact, worth nothing. That's the effect of digital media. It's completely incompatible with the free market. Weirdly enough, the people who were most vocal a…

> The market decided a long time ago that movies, songs, books, photographs etc were, in fact, worth nothing. That's the effect of digital media. It's completely incompatible with the free market. This is such a willfully ignorant take, it’s wild. Anyone who has a cursory understanding of game theory can see that if this were true a simple recursion would occur: 1. Everyone would pirate movies/tv/books. 2. There woul…

It's not an ignorant take, it's reality. If you don't want that outcome, stop supporting outdated economic theories. I didn't say I wanted this to be the case, I said it is the case. The only reason digital media is sellable at all is due to laws and regulations. Not only are these laws and regualtions historically anathematic to those who defend the outdated economic theories, they're also protecting the wrong people. The distribution networks get a much larger share of profit than the actual creators.

People should exchange money for digital goods. That money should go primarily to the creators of those goods. None of this is happening very much, and it's actually moving in the wrong direction.

Re: My private information is worth $30

#56

Post by diab0lic »

Intermernet wrote: post #55
diab0lic wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The market decided a long time ago that movies, songs, books, photographs etc were, in fact, worth nothing. That's the effect of digital media. It's completely incompatible with the free market. This is such a willfully ignorant take, it’s wild. Anyone who has a cursory understanding of game theory can see that if this were true a simple recursion would occur: 1. Everyone would pirate movies/tv/books. 2. There woul…

It's not an ignorant take, it's reality. If you don't want that outcome, stop supporting outdated economic theories. I didn't say I wanted this to be the case, I said it is the case. The only reason digital media is sellable at all is due to laws and regulations. Not only are these laws and regualtions historically anathematic to those who defend the outdated economic theories, they're also protecting the wrong peopl…

Ah! I think I missed your point because I read your comment through the lens of the root comment. My apologies!

We’re actually largely in agreement, especially about content creators deserving compensation and the fact that distribution is vacuuming up most of it.

Re: My private information is worth $30

#57

Post by mattmaroon »

bmitch3020 wrote: post #14

I wonder how much more organizations would value PII if we could legally demand all of the PII of the executive officers for that same price.

I’d assume the executive officers are just as affected as anyone else. Nobody is safe from the data harvesting/sales going on anymore.

Re: My private information is worth $30

#58

Post by Intermernet »

diab0lic wrote: post #56
Intermernet wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not an ignorant take, it's reality. If you don't want that outcome, stop supporting outdated economic theories. I didn't say I wanted this to be the case, I said it is the case. The only reason digital media is sellable at all is due to laws and regulations. Not only are these laws and regualtions historically anathematic to those who defend the outdated economic theories, they're also protecting the wrong peopl…

Ah! I think I missed your point because I read your comment through the lens of the root comment. My apologies! We’re actually largely in agreement, especially about content creators deserving compensation and the fact that distribution is vacuuming up most of it.

I thought there might have been a misunderstanding there :-) Sorry, I often get long winded and my statements can be ambiguous.

Re: My private information is worth $30

#59

Post by diab0lic »

Intermernet wrote: post #58
diab0lic wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah! I think I missed your point because I read your comment through the lens of the root comment. My apologies! We’re actually largely in agreement, especially about content creators deserving compensation and the fact that distribution is vacuuming up most of it.

I thought there might have been a misunderstanding there :-) Sorry, I often get long winded and my statements can be ambiguous.

My mistake for sure. Thanks for giving me a chance to realize it. :)

Re: My private information is worth $30

#60

Post by NaomiLehman »

dmurray wrote: post #42

What would an actual market price be for this PII? Let's say someone offers $X, and in return they post on a public website your name, address, date of birth, Social Security number and employer. Not a lifetime feed, but a single snapshot of this information taken between 4 and 36 years ago, to match the details of this university leak. Maybe some additional info like what grades you got, but not your financial or he…

the price for a standard "US Fullz" record is between $5 and $30. slightly more if their credit score is exceptionally high (allows for bigtime fraud), but nothing more than $100. I think the low price is driven by a seemingly infinite number of leaks.

Fullz + Passport/DL + Selfie: $80 – $150

disclaimer: I work in tech/trend analysis

Post reply on HN