The flipside of the personal data coin: useful suggestions on one side and ownership, control and responsibility on the other

Think about how Tesco Clubcard and many other firms are finding out more and more of our needs, interests and other personal data – in fact every time we use a phone or a web browser to make a transaction or to communicate with friends we generate data that firms collect and can then analyse. These are the firms that we buy things from or that we ask for information to help us buy things. Or they are the firms whose services help us in other ways.

Whatever you do online generates data – when you search, when you click through web sites, when you register for information or when you ask questions you are generating data for those firms that are able to see what you are doing. Your broadband supplier, your web browser supplier and the owners of the web sites that you visit all know what you do because it is their service that helps you do it.

Firms can also get very detailed location information and timing information – especially when you use your phone for browsing or on the web. And that’s great when they use it for suggesting really useful things that you would never have thought of – like Amazon’s ‘People who bought these books also bought these’.

But what happens when firms lose your data or when they get hacked? (And many will) So how can you be protected? What happens when you say ‘its my data, I want to control how it is used!’ And what about sharing the value that this data generates with the person it is about, i.e. me?

So, on one side of the coin there’s the increasingly detailed personal information (Interests, Location, Time) that firms can use to help people a lot and create immense value. But on the other side of the coin there are unresolved issues of control, share of value and fixing damage when its lost or stolen. This general lack of clarity about control, value and fixing damage also means that the role of the regulators is also unclear because these issues are what the regulators’ roles are based on.

I think I have a solution to most of the problem of fixing damage, and the control problem, but I’d be interested to hear of any ideas that help with the share of value problem. I know how to create it, read my blog posts, but sharing value is different.

For example, what if I buy tomatoes from Sainsbury’s and then Sainsbury’s sells data on my buying behaviour to its tomato supplier so as to help it produce ‘better’ tomatoes. Then what if the tomato supplier makes more profit from ‘better’ tomatoes, e.g. because they are more popular. Sainsbury’s might have a clever deal to get part of that value. Like a reduced price on he supplied tomatoes or a percentage of the tomato supplier’s increase in profit.

But how can I get part of that increased profit? Should I get part?

I’m looking for different ways to look at this issue and for some underlying logic to work out how to share the value that is created. Any suggestions?