HACKER Q&A
📣 orlandohohmeier

What's Your Data Worth?


Found a few articles about per-user valuation and average revenue per user. There are posts on data marketplaces and the likes. Yet, I'd like to understand what people think their data is worth and whether different forms of "putting that data to use" affect that valuation. So here are my two questions for you:

How much money would one need to give you in exchange for your data? -> Imagine a service where you upload all your data and receive some money in exchange.

Assuming one could use your data without ever looking at it and it never leaves you, what would you want in exchange for it then? -> Imagine a service which basically trains a machine learning model locally using your data (e.g. on your computer) and then only uploads that model while you receive some money in exchange.

Does it make any difference? Would you want something different in exchange, i.e. free services or data?

  👤 DerekBickerton Accepted Answer ✓
My private data isn't worth much since it's highly context-specific to me, and only I place value on it since I know how it all works and how it can be leveraged. A random person exploring my private data would be eternally lost as to what to do with it. That doesn't mean I share it publicly just because it has no value to others.

There are people who hoard[0] data all to themselves on storage which is getting cheaper as each year passes.

[0] https://old.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/

👤 GaseousClay
I'd appreciate if it were much like meeting people, maybe more private since a software/company isn't a person.

While I wouldn't tell anyone my life story immediately, they may get to know more about me through consistent interaction over time. I'd prefer if apps got our data similarly instead of in bulk from shady data collectors.

But this reminds me of gossip; it would be nice if only our non-sensitive data were strictly shared with our consent, both across apps/companies and across people, but I could see that killing the market value of data collection. Plus maybe sharing user data has similar 1st amendment protections as gossip? But much like talking about others, some such discussions are more ethical than others.

It would be nice if an ethical standard for user data collection and sharing were settled and widely adopted, but I'm not sure where to start. GDPR seems a start: https://gdpr-info.eu/