Ask Lemmy

I don't care about royalties. They should pay a gigantic tax for selling it tho

yeah honestly the fraction of a cent I'd get negotiated wouldn't make a dent in my life. I'd much rather we as a collective hold companies accountable for selling off our data. Politicians too; they're all trying squeeze us for everything they can, and we consent by being apathetic.

I'd prefer it if they simply weren't allowed to collect it in the first place.

And I don't think it would be viable, because no fucking way am I giving these parasites any banking information so they could pay me a pittance of what they get. They'd fucking sell that too!

It should be a requirement that you can see your own profile at any time, see everything they know about you, be able to edit it (including clearing it, and not with a billion checkboxes either), and lock it to prevent further modification and addition by themselves.

Disagree. Privacy should be the default.

Collecting information should be legal only in so far as it supports the customer's use of a product/service. E.g. It's nice if my doctor can keep a medical history on file, or my mechanic can do the same for my car.

Selling/disclosing information to third parties should be illegal.

Agree

Absolutely. I think the difficulties in ensuring the data owner gets paid properly highlight the fact that gathering this data needs to be approved by the data owner and can't just be done willy nilly. Data is a valuable resource, although in the most part intangible. It's this intangibility that has given data hearders the impression its up for grabs. The whole system needs strick rules to protect people's data wealth and not to mention privacy.

Generally, I personally, disagree. Usually companies do not get your data from the air, they provide people service and often for free in exchange. This is a model which made internet available for masses.

What I agree with - a transparency and control, more or less like GDPR suggests (not like it is usually implemented, though).

How much do you think your data is actually worth? Let's take Google for example, their ad revenue in 2022 was ~$224B and they have 4.3B monthly active users. That's only $52 per user, but if you take into account their operating expenses of $208B that drops down to $3.7 per user.

But that's not all, they don't make their revenue by "selling your data", that's a common misconception. They make revenue by selling targeted advertisements on their systems, and targeted advertising is only useful if you actually click the ads and purchase the products.

Now the correlation between your interests might be useful in aggregate, but for a single person this correlation data rounds down to a big fat zero, and since Lemmy users pride themselves in ad blockers and avoiding online advertisements I'm going to say that the value you personally add to Google's revenue is a big fat zero.

So should Google cut you a check for ~$0 per year? Honestly this conversation is a waste of time.

Consumer: I like your product. Can I use it?
Company: Sure thing! It's free but we're going to take your data and sell it.
Consumer: Okay!
. . . Consumer: Hey, you're selling that data I told you you could sell as long as I can use your product for free! You should give me commission.

Me: Don't use things that sell your data. Start by deleting the apps from your phone in favor of the web version. Make sure to decline allowing websites and services to track your usage. It's not perfect, but it's a start.
What should be even more concerning at the moment is the Mozilla report that came out reporting that every car company is now extracting more of your personal information than TikTok or Facebook. https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/privacy-nightmare-on-wheels-every-car-brand-reviewed-by-mozilla-including-ford-volkswagen-and-toyota-flunks-privacy-test/

According to Mozilla research, popular global brands — including BMW, Ford, Toyota, Tesla, Kia, and Subaru — can collect deeply personal data such as sexual activity, immigration status, race, facial expressions, weight, health and genetic information, and where you drive. Researchers found data is being gathered by sensors, microphones, cameras, and the phones and devices drivers connect to their cars, as well as by car apps, company websites, dealerships, and vehicle telematics. Brands can then share or sell this data to third parties. Car brands can also take much of this data and use it to develop inferences about a driver’s intelligence, abilities, characteristics, preferences, and more.