Live data from Hacker News

California governor proposes data dividend

cnbc.com

1–10 of 46 posts

Re: California governor proposes data dividend

#3
Four years ago I wrote about requiring companies to pass along x% of targeted ad revenue sales to the users: https://thelocalyarn.com/article/judicious-change

I still think this is a good strategy for the purpose of snuffing out the incentives for surveillance business models.

Re: California governor proposes data dividend

#4
Before a company will pay you for your data, you will need to prove beyond doubt your identity, by providing that company with all the id and data you have. “Sorry, you havn’t provided enough data to validate your ID yet”, is the get out clause in that business model. The journey to hell, is paved with good intentions, and there are preists all along the way telling you which way it is.

Re: California governor proposes data dividend

#5

Paying us for our data won't nearly compensate us for the loss of our democracy. Quite the opposite: it puts an exact price on how cheap that comes about.

I agree, and paying people directly doesn't make a whole lot of economic sense.

But if it meaninfully increases the cost of using the targeted data, it could be an interesting trade-off.

Almost like a carbon tax isn't designed to raise revenue, a personal data tax could discourage the "use it by default" mentality, since it would come with a cost.

Re: California governor proposes data dividend

#6
post #4

Before a company will pay you for your data, you will need to prove beyond doubt your identity, by providing that company with all the id and data you have. “Sorry, you havn’t provided enough data to validate your ID yet”, is the get out clause in that business model. The journey to hell, is paved with good intentions, and there are preists all along the way telling you which way it is.

If they're going to do that, I'd leave the disbursement to the state.

That'd be easier for companies (just send one check), and provide a privacy preserving proxy between the payment and payee.

Re: California governor proposes data dividend

#7
post #4

Before a company will pay you for your data, you will need to prove beyond doubt your identity, by providing that company with all the id and data you have. “Sorry, you havn’t provided enough data to validate your ID yet”, is the get out clause in that business model. The journey to hell, is paved with good intentions, and there are preists all along the way telling you which way it is.

Or, it will allow them to validate what data they have on you and charge more for it!

Re: California governor proposes data dividend

#8
bing pays you rewards, which for me adds up to like $20/yr. I'd hope there would be more competition between search engines so they compete with benefits for users. For most queries google isn't that much better, use DuckDuckGo for privacy or other engines.

Re: California governor proposes data dividend

#9
Good idea, bad implementation. This will legitimize and validate the data collection and nothing else will change. Will there be even less incentive for companies to secure the data they're collecting because we'd already have been paid for it? What should be targeted is how this data is: collected, secured, and used. Throwing a few dollars our way each year solves nothing.

Re: California governor proposes data dividend

#10
> “California’s consumers should also be able to share in the wealth that is created from their data,” Newsom said from the State Capitol in Sacramento.

This is such an odd sentence to read, post-GDPR, because it sounds as if consumers have no idea what their data is being used for, and/or have no control over how it's processed, and just have to subject themselves to it.

The GDPR literally starts off by recognizing personal data and the protection thereof as a fundamental right, and regulates how others must subject themselves in order to process it.

Post reply on HN