Toni Fan: Digital Trail Worth Money
on Wednesday, September 6, 2017Toni Fan Money Quote saying digital data trails are highly valued by companies, but we don’t get compensated for any of that value by those who find it so valuable. Toni Fan said:
“Your digital trail is worth huge amounts of money to corporations and other institutions. Yet you never get to share in its value. Not only that, you barely know who collects it, who sells it, and who buys it” — Toni Fan
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In this quote, Toni Fan is pointing out how personal data generated by individuals online has great monetary value for companies but people see little direct benefit or control over how their information is used. The best interpretation is that Fan believes corporations profit greatly by collecting, analyzing and selling people’s digital footprints and behavioral data, but ordinary users see none of these financial returns.
They also have limited visibility into the full process of who exactly gathers their data, who it is shared with for further commercial use through secondary sales. Fan views this as an imbalance where individuals’ digital data is a highly lucrative commodity for others but people themselves are largely in the dark about its exploitation and do not share in the wealth it creates.
The overall message is one of concern over how personal digital information fuels a large, opaque economy without much reciprocity or transparency for those whose data is being monetized.