Hello everyone,
So in the wake of a major scandal currently faced by Facebook 's CEO on some 50million acquired US citizens data, I came across an ICO whitepaper in one of my reviews and made the following deductions.
Did you know there's a huge data mining market working behind the scene? Data brokering is the kind of business in which personal information about a consumer (that is you and I) is collected, stored and without our consent sold for profits to big corporations needing such data for their new market strategy. These data (which includes names, locations, birthdays, social media habits, credit card activities, and so on) which are gotten from your smart devices, browser cookies, shopping activity, the Internet of Things (IoT) devices are of significant value to companies interested in making profits.
The data brokering industry is a big one, with an estimated value of about $200billion and growing. Equifax being one of the top players in the industry holds information of some 800million people around the globe, this generated a revenue of 3.1billion in 2016. Same year, Microsoft Corporation bought LinkedIn (online professional network) which had an active monthly users of 100million people (with their data of course). It is predicted that the data brokering market will grow by 27% yearly with IoT devices being the biggest source of data. Craig Mundie says “data are becoming the new material of business”, and is expected to reach a market of 2trillion in 2019.
Now we, the originators of this data do not get to benefit from sharing or at the very least, have control over them. A survey by pewinternet.org reveals that 91% of respondents believe that consumers have lost control over how companies collect and use their personal information while 81% agree to the insecurities and high risks attached to sharing personal information on social media platforms. In the September of 2017, very important personal information of some 143million people were obtained via a hack on Equifax, this further more proves the unsafe nature of having such invaluable data stored in a central database.
Also there is a big limitation for researchers, who may need these data for study purpose. Data “custodians” like Facebook or Google keep these data away in silos making it difficult for advancements in the society generally plus the insecurities potent in the hands of a data custodian.
Now the solution to this problem is quite simple, a Decentralized data market where we the originators of these data actually have control over what data to share, and how much they are worth!
Source
blockchain technology is the answer to it all.
Imagine getting paid to take a survey for a company with a new product, a political party, an NGO, a scientific research and so on with the elimination of these third parties... Just imagine , if your social media accounts where on the BLOCK before now.
Anyone would sleep better at night when they actually have the key's to their own life!
Or are we already too late?
@tekadii
