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

[P Kishor]

more on this subject
http://www.fastcolabs.com/3030298/on-the-russian-black-market-prices-are-dropping-for-your-personal-data

money quote:

"In the end, Russian cybercriminals have created a black market economy of
surprisingly low prices--a place where American credit card credentials can
be purchased for the staggeringly low price of $1 and German credit cards
cost $6"

One consolation of the above may be that my cc data may be six times less
likely to be stolen than that of someone from Germany.



On Sat, May 3, 2014 at 7:11 AM, P Kishor <punk.kish at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
>
>


-- 
Puneet Kishor
Manager, Science and Data Policy
Creative Commons
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