These consumers are also not privy to the decisions made about their data and indeed they do not know who or what makes them, and for what purpose.
It doesn’t help that the valuation of social media platforms incorporates user counts, impressions and engagement levels which are eventually converted into hard cash.
Does privacy have commercial value and if so, can personal data be traded for goods, services, or content? It is an important question because the data generated and produced collectively in 2020 stood at 2.5 quintillion bytes.
The digital economy has an enormous appetite for user data which is largely gathered, stored, and traded without permission, let alone without the consumer’s knowledge.
These consumers are also not privy to the decisions made about their data and indeed they do not know who or what makes them, and for what purpose.
If the Industrial Age created a host of wealthy industrialists, the Information Age has been considerably more generous. It has spawned many more beneficiaries of this information glut with 20 percent of the Forbes 400 having their fortunes in technology. And these 80 billionaires have a combined wealth of $1.6 trillion.
It is, therefore, plausible that the privacy issue has reared its benign head because these very users have a worm’s eye view of the action.
They’ve watched as tech magnates launch into the sky, roaring to a wealth stratum that no other generation has ever reached before. Perhaps the enlightened consumer desires a share of those fortunes — their data has facilitated this rise after all.
It doesn’t help that the valuation of social media platforms incorporates user counts, impressions and engagement levels which are eventually converted into hard cash. And digital media attracts advertising dollars because of its ability to keep users locked in.
The new media companies have performed particularly well while pulling the advertising expenditure rug from under the feet of traditional media.
The ill wind of Covid-19 acted as a catalyst to this redirection of attention, and subsequently cash. In 2020, the global digital advertising spending stood at $350 billion and it is expected to reach $786 billion by 2026.
Significant chunks of this expenditure is as a direct result of unrestricted access and use of personal data. Whereas traditional media has established a code of practice that protects audiences from the invasion of privacy, new media has dazzled and blinded us.
Commercial research adheres to ethics referred to as a codification of scientific morality in practice. The rules are based on general ethics of science, just as general ethics is based on the morality of a society at large.
The privacy issue, therefore, most likely stems from the fact that privacy is a qualified, fundamental human right and it serves as a foundation upon which many other human rights are built.
There are schools of thought that claim that personal privacy can be used as a currency for content like traditional TV channels entertained audiences and offered news free of charge.
Media owners then finance their operations from advertising fees earned.
Tech companies must apply good governance and assume responsibility for the implications of their business models.
There are policies that aim to enhance individuals’ control and rights over their personal data.
PAYE Tax Calculator
Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
