What might your data be worth if companies paid for access to it? Pricing strategy is the process of setting or adjusting charges for goods, services, or data access. In a future data market, no single price would fit everyone: value would depend on demand, usefulness, and the characteristics of the data. section 8.7.1
Past commercial behavior would likely provide the starting point. Companies such as Amazon, Facebook, and Netflix have established expectations around charging for data access and use, while markets generally change gradually. Earlier online services also normalized a different exchange: Google offered free search while using data created by its users, then supported the service through advertising. section 8.7.1 section 1.3.3
Potential pricing decisions could consider:
- Purchasing behavior and economic status, with heavier spending potentially attracting greater commercial value. section 8.7.1
- Health information, where rare diseases, unusual blood types, disorders, or distinctive genetic data might command a premium. section 8.7.1
- Life circumstances such as location, life stage, marital status, income, home ownership, and debt level. section 8.7.1
- Popularity and frequency of use, since widely demanded data may be accessed and reused more often. section 8.7.1
A possible data dividend
One proposed model treated Facebook as an equitable business partner and shared half its profit with the people supplying the data. The estimate put an average user’s return at $10.77 per quarter, while more active users would receive more. section 8.7.1
The central lesson is uncertainty. Data does not have one inherent price, and a commercial market could reward some information far more than other information. Understanding the incentives behind pricing helps people ask who benefits, what determines value, and whether a proposed exchange is fair. section 8.7.1 section 1.3.3
