Facebook makes money on your data, why shouldn’t you?

Every few months or so, someone sends around a message that warns Facebook users to beware: Facebook is going to start charging you money.

Tsk. Tsk. Facebook doesn’t need it. It makes billions of dollars because you use Facebook for free. Facebook and all social media and search sites sell your search and purchase information to advertisers. If you are searching for a lamp, advertisers who are selling lamps can (for a fee) target you with lamp ads.

The question is really: Shouldn’t Facebook be paying you?

While you have heard a lot about privacy in the media, the underlying truth is that the issue is less about privacy and more about economics.

Why shouldn’t you get a piece of your own action?

One reason so far is that individuals haven’t had a way to sell or trade their data. Facebook does, so it gets rich off of you and its billion users.
That is changing.

Wibson is one of a handful of companies using blockchain technology (the power behind bitcoin) to give individuals a way to sell their validated data anonymously. And, Wibson says users can see how their data is being used and exchange access to data for some sort of value.
Wibson says the US consumer could easily make $240 per year if they could make money from their own data that is being sold and traded today.

“In all likelihood, the number is probably much higher when additional, high-value data — such as purchase history, location, app usage, communication patterns, financial information, among others, are considered,” writes Wibson staffers on its blog.

Wibson has an Android app that allows individuals to become part of their emerging data network that presumably could give users some sort of value for providing their information.