[MyData & Open Data] we have a price: 11KEUR/personal medical data

Sat May 3 14:11:28 UTC 2014

Here is my non-scientific reading of the calculator.

On Fri, May 2, 2014 at 1:31 PM, Lancelot PECQUET (Will Strategy) <
lpecquet at willstrategy.com> wrote:

> First, because it suggests that there is a precise (three decimal
> places...),
> unique way to measure how much personal data is worth , regardless of
> how businesses, governments or others will use it, which is, of course, a
> complete nonsense.
>

Overlook the three decimal places part. They could have just as easily done
a `Math.round(num)` changing the illusion of precision. Just call it
insensitive-programming.

> Second, because it conveys the idea that personal data has little value
> (from $0.007 to $4.99 max for a pregnant banker who owns a house, a boat,
> a plane and has extremely poor health condition...).
>
> It suggests for instance that disclosing your heart disease, high blood
> pressure
> or obesity "is only worth $0.26" (whatever that means).
>

I think it is not the value that FT is suggesting. I believe this is the
value they have determined the "marketplace" is willing to offer for that
information. Remember, while your info may only be worth 26 cents, for a(n
illegal) broker selling a million such values, that is a cool $2600 netted,
most likely automatically with a harvesting program. Actually, I don't even
have to use 'marketplace' in quotes or parenthesize 'illegal' because there
are enough legal brokers of such information.

>
> Many people conclude (I have tested this FT calculator on several
> audiences) that,
> "after all, if this piece of information represents only $0.26, there is
> no need to
> worry about protecting it".
>

Value of anything is what someone is willing to pay for it. For the
wheelers and dealers of the info marketplace, your individual info is worth
only 26 cents (and that, actually, sounds like a lot, because most likely
they will send you a million spams with your info, 999999 of which will be
caught by your spam filter). However, for you, protecting that info might
be worth a lot more, so you (and I and many others, as is evident by a
whole bunch of us hanging out on this list and discussing this subject ad
infinitum) will spend a lot (of effort) to protect it.

-- 
Puneet Kishor
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