Calculating the Value of Your Personal Metadata

via newsweek:

“Google and Facebook’s entire business model is based on the notion of “monetizing” our privacy. To succeed they must slowly change the notion of privacy itself—the “social norm,” as Facebook puts it—so that what we’re giving up doesn’t seem so valuable. Then they must gain our trust. Thus each new erosion of privacy comes delivered, paradoxically, with rhetoric about how Company X really cares about privacy. I’m not sure whether Orwell would be appalled or impressed. And who knew Big Brother would be not a big government agency, but a bunch of kids in Silicon Valley?

The problem with buying things with your privacy is you really don’t know how much you’re paying. With money, five bucks is five bucks. But what is the value of your list of friends? If it’s not worth much, your membership on Facebook may be the deal of a lifetime. If it’s incredibly valuable, you’re getting massively ripped off. Only the techies know how much your info is worth, and they’re not telling. But the fact that they’d rather get your data than your dollars tells you all you need to know.”

This article makes some good points and is a nice call to the fold for those who don’t yet put on their tinfoil hats before every social network interaction. I take offense, however, to the statement “Only the techies know how much your info is worth, and they’re not telling.”

Hello? Is (this) (thing) (on)?

I assume that by “techies” they mean “developers of these tools,” but that is not at all who is placing value and developing business models based on having access to this data. If we’re going to have a blamestorming session, point the finger where it belongs.