Consumer data is the next virtual currency

Imagine if someone siphoned the gas from your car without your knowledge – little by little until they finally had enough gas to open their own gas station and sell what they had taken from you. Now imagine the gas is your personal data — the digital information trail you leave every time you use a connected device — and the siphoning bandit turned entrepreneur is Big Tech. Suddenly, this imaginary scenario is not far from our current reality.

Marketers these days don’t like to talk about consumer data because of the negative attention it brings with the current spotlight on data privacy. Let’s talk.

Your personal information as it is now used

Developers need this valuable data to build thriving digital businesses that customize personalized online experiences. And whether we like to admit it or not, as consumers, most of us enjoy these highly customized experiences. According to TrustPilot75% of online shoppers like brands to personalize their offerings and messages, and 74% get frustrated with content that isn’t relevant to their lives.

At the same time, while web browsers operated by the Big Tech companies collect huge amounts of user data to create detailed profiles and track us around the web, consumers feel that their privacy is being violated. We do not know what our data is used for, how it is stored and to whom it is sold. Most people have no idea how much of their personal information they freely share with the world. Yet we increasingly fear for the safety of our personal informationand rightly so with the recent attack of data leaks†

​Unfortunately, our personal data has been used to create negative personal and social outcomes when misused. In the run-up to political elections, algorithms have been designed to create echo chambers. Several studies show that Facebook’s personal data leads teens to commit suicide. Consumer data is used to drive product adoption for Facebook and Google, and it is not in our best interests.

Your personal data as it could be – currency you own

While there is an extreme dichotomy between the flip side and the positive side of companies using personal data, we are at a crossroads where consumers are tired of their data being unknowingly used by Facebook, Google and others. What if consumers had very granular control over their personal data as a unit of economic currency? she own?

Consumers have never been able to control how their data is “spent” (i.e. what businesses can use their data to make as much money as possible). What if we could control how our personal information is spent and capture some of the economic value created by buying and selling our data? Our data is valuable and we need to be able to say how and when it is used.

It turns out that marketers can get a much richer data profile with the right opt-in programs. Companies get better results when they ask consumers questions instead of passively collecting data and trying to guess their intentions. When you ask consumers for their data and give them control over how and when it can be used – instead of stealing it – you get more powerful targeting parameters. Collecting massive amounts of data that may be irrelevant actually makes it harder to target audiences accurately. Smaller amounts of cleaner data work better every time.

The future of consumer data looks brighter – and more ethical

Ethically obtained consumer data is coming. Today, responsible companies care about their communities and the environment, and take Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy, because that’s what current and future employees want to see, and that’s the right thing to do. Companies plant trees. They donate to local schools and charities. The ethical collection of consumer data will become part of the CSR policy.

Just as we can’t dump sludge into the river and can no longer steal our neighbors’ cable TV, businesses won’t be able to steal consumer data for much longer. As a business, you can no longer ignore how you collect personal information from consumers.

It’s time for consumers to take control. While we don’t necessarily earn our data currency, we need to be able to decide how to spend it. In fact, we should be able to spend our data currency on websites and companies of our choice.

What if we expand that to give out our data to businesses we care about, like our favorite neighborhood bar or restaurant? When I go to a bar, the TV commercials are increasingly aimed specifically at me. This is the future. In the next 10 years we will see a fundamental evolution of how we make money from physical spaces, as we have made money from digital spaces. And it will be largely driven by this concept that consumers have a data currency that they can spend.

Let’s use people’s data to improve their online and real-life experiences, instead of focusing on making as much money as possible. Let’s take what was good about the internet, and not the horrible things we did on the internet, simply because it was the Wild West and nobody paid attention. Make sure consumers “opt in” in the right situations for them, rather than making it difficult for them to opt out. And not just because the way we interact with data currencies is going to be part of the next wave of CSR; but because it is the right choice for the consumer.

Sam Mallikarjunan is CEO of OneScreen.ai†