Most internet services are valuable to us because they can add value to our personal information. Google can deliver more relevant search results by monitoring which search results we click on and then tailoring future results to our preferences. FaceBook asks us for some personal information like geographic location and our immediate network of friends, in return they let us connect with new friends and contacts that we wouldn’t have found otherwise. In both cases, these companies are using our personal information to provide a service we find beneficial.
What concerns most people is what else companies do with our information when we’re not using it. Do they use it to spam our friends? Do they monitor our internet behavior and share it with other companies? In truth, most people don’t mind companies keeping track of our data for us—but when they try to monetize that data we begin to feel uncomfortable.
Whenever companies distribute software, as the owner of software, they can place strict legal limitations on what can be done with it. They can say who can use it, in what way, and for how long. Why can’t we, the consumer, place the same limitations on our own information that we let companies use? We should be setting the terms upon which they use our data.
It’s a bit of a role reversal that might take some getting used to but, when it comes to social media, the consumer’s data is the real currency companies value. Why should we have to read a 50-page TOS that tells us how the company is going to use our data? It’s ours.
I would love to see an organization like Creative Commons come out with a personal profile license that companies have to adhere to. There could be a couple flavors, letting us pick the types of activities we’re comfortable with. Maybe we don’t mind our consumer behavior being tracked. (You could get better ads that way.) Maybe we’re cool with email blasts. (Coupons in your inbox?) Or maybe we’re like Steve Gibson and would just assume the company not even be able to decrypt our data on their own servers.
I’m sure this would be a huge pain for companies to keep track of—especially if the number of profile licenses in the wild got above 4 or 5. But companies could tell us to take a hike if they don’t like the type of profile license we’ve chosen. That’s fine with me. There are other fish in the sea. At least this way everything’s up front and both parties know what they’re getting into.
It’s our data. They want to make money off of it. It’s about time we set some terms of use.
Never thought of it that way. Perhaps Twitter should be paying me for my insightful tweets? Does Twitter even have/use money?
You gonna add some Creative Commons licensing to your blog posts? Keep the haterz from stealing your bits?