philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

If Facebook Can Profit from Your Data, Why Can’t You?

Reputation.com says it’s ready to unveil a place where people can offer personal information to marketers in return for discounts and other perks. ...

Green cites the date that a person’s car lease expires as an example of a piece of personal data with an established value that people control themselves. “There’ll only be one car company that knows that,” he says. “But companies will pay hundreds of dollars, if you are seriously going to buy a car, to incent you to do that.”

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Green says that he intends to develop infrastructure so people can selectively share data with another company, perhaps in return for discounts or other benefits. Similar to how a person might use a Facebook or Google account to log into a website, he might use a Personal account to connect with a company. He could then control exactly what data that company could access, and for how long. An early iteration of this idea can be seen on the website Car and Driver, where its already possible to log in with a Personal account. Doing so leads to a permissions screen where the site requests access to details including the make, model, and year of a person’s vehicle. “[Data] marketplaces are going to be incredibly valuable, but we’re focused on portability,” says Green.

See the full story here: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/517356/if-facebook-can-profit-from-your-data-why-cant-you/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20130730