Dr Plaut’s research seemed to generate a lot of discussion concerning our often-unaware sale of personal data. While the thought of unwillingly selling my data through discount cards, social media, and mail list subscriptions initially made me uncomfortable, the more I thought about the pay off the more I considered the worth.
As a student I’m more than familiar with the cliché of people struggling to make ends meet who consider extreme money-making schemes, like somehow selling a kidney on the black market, starting a career as a stripper, or meeting a rich “Sugar Daddy”. While these schemes may come with large monetary rewards, they are often not ideal. We live in a society where personal data is an increasingly significant market, so why should we as producers not take advantage of this. It seems to me that selling my own data for multiple small savings on groceries, fuel, or other necessities is preferable to struggling to get by at all or being forced to take extreme measures to do so.
The discussion of personal data sale often seems to put greater emphasis on the purchaser and their use of the data, rather than the producer and the profits they receive. In a world where making ends meet seems to be increasingly difficult, perhaps more discussion on the benefits of data sale is required. While people do still need to become more conscious of the sale of their personal data, this isn’t just for reasons of security, but perhaps to help people choose what they sell and for what rewards.
