I know this isn't strictly piracy related, I apologise, but I think it is tangentally related in that piracy protects you from data theft by avoiding the services the biggest thieves operate. Also, I feel like people here might be very interested in this take.
Apparently, the "legal" data brokerage industry was worth $319 billion in 2021, and is predicted to be worth $545 billion in 2028.[^1]
Meanwhile, in 2021 there were only 7.9 billion people in the world[^2] - many of whom do not have internet access or have very little data being traded. If we generously assume 6 billion people have equal volumes of data being traded, that means each person's data is worth $53.17 per year on the market.
Data is effectively stolen from people. We do not get anything in return for it. We may be offered access to a website free of charge, but that is a separate transaction - it is not appropriate for another transaction to be hidden in the fine print of the terms and conditions. When you buy insurance, the key terms have to be front and centre - you pay x, you get y service. Not "You can have y for free!!! ^(But^ ^also^ ^you^ ^give^ ^us^ ^x^ ^for^ ^free.)^" You're supposed to be able to compare the value of the things being traded.
Bearing in mind that this is merely data brokerage, not actual processing or deriving any value from the data, a simple profit margin can be applied. They simply collect the data - easily and at low cost through automated processes - and then sell it. If businesses still took a very generous 30% profit (rather than a ludicrous infinite and pure profit) then the value of an average person's data that they are owed is around $40 per year.
To run the other numbers to check, the global population in 2028 is predicted to be 8.4 billion - a growth of 6.329%. So our 6 billion population would become 6.38 billion, and with the $545 billion market value an individual's data would be worth $85.43 on the market, or $65.71 to the individual. The value of user data is predicted to rise.
Obviously that 6 billion population figure I used is an approximation - a blind one at that. To give a worst case valuation for 2021, if we assume all 7.9 billion people equally have data being traded, then an individual's data is worth $40.38 on the market, and $31.06 to the user. These are the minimum values, averaged evenly across the entire global population.
When Google and Facebook started out, data had very little value - there was no market for it. Thus it seemed reasonable to let them just take it, even if maybe it could be worth something. The service they offered was new and novel, a shiny new toy for everyone to play with. They then used this data to become some of the wealthiest businesses in the world. Now, even big players like Microsoft have joined in, in spite of the fact that their main products are paid products.
One form of bank fraud is where the criminal takes pennies out of multiple accounts, the idea being that people won't notice such a small debit, and banks might write it off as some kind of error. This has been legislated against and proven illegal - yet these assholes take $40 each from everyone and get away with it!
[^1]:https://www.knowledge-sourcing.com/report/global-data-broker-market Edit: lmao we broke it https://web.archive.org/web/20240107042301/https://www.knowledge-sourcing.com/report/global-data-broker-market ...or did they maybe take it down?? /tinfoil Edit2: it's back up lol [^2]:https://www.populationpyramid.net/world/2021/
Agreed. The first step I think is education, letting people know the value, pointing out that it is a pandemic problem that affects everyone, then convincing politicians that they are being robbed too. If a lawmaker thinks they're a victim, then they might actually pull their finger out.
I do that to some degree, with some things. Like with captcha, I play a game of getting things wrong, but just enough to get through. Not every attempt though, I want it to still think I'm a human that's smarter than the machine, then when I think it's giving me a genuine training screen I spoil it.
I don't use cash as much as I maybe should, I prefer it in some regards, but contactless card purchases are just so easy. I've never used Google or Apple Pay, though, but that's more because I run custom firmware. Also, I've since learned that when you use your phone to pay it's the equivalent to chip and PIN. You are authorising the transaction and taking responsibility for it, whereas if you use a contactless debit/credit card it is processed as "cardholder not present", whereby the seller assumes more responsibility if you dispute it. This method of transaction isn't new, it's how catalogue or telephone purchases were always done, as well as online purchases. But if you use your card with chip and PIN, or if you use your phone, you will have a much harder time disputing any transaction.
In terms of user data protection, really I think the cat is long since out of the bag. There's no putting it back in - and in many ways we shouldn't, as data is useful and has benefits to society. I think it should go either one of two ways:
In the meantime, one way a user can limit their data collection using restrictive privacy browsing settings. For my personal PC's, I not only run uBlock Origin but also uMatrix - a deprecated extension made by the same author. This has similar funcionality to uBlock Origin when you set it to author mode, where it can selectively block different domains, but uMatrix presents it as a matrix which also allows you to select the type of content as well as domains. By default, it blocks all 3rd party frames, audio/video media, scripts, XHR, and "other", so quite often it leaves websites broken on first load, but then I pick through and enable the bare minimum of content to get it working. This isn't for everyone, of course, as it can be a hassle sometimes - particularly with payment processors which are all done on multiple 3rd party servers. However, it does highlight to me how endemic Google are with captcha, even when it doesn't give you a captcha prompt. I can't log into some of my online banking without enabling connections to Google, which is sickening. This is an example of what uMatrix looks like:
The extension doesn't get updates anymore, so my lists are out of date compared to uBlock Origin. I'm pretty sure I could update them manually, but since I run uBO as well I don't really feel the need. I've tried running just uMatrix, but uBO has its own array of special lists and without those YouTube ad blocking doesn't work.
uBlock Origin and Matrix are entirely new to me — of course I can’t have missed references to them in discussions but I just don’t have the time to chase down every good idea.
Simply getting engaged with the Fediverse has been adventure enough.
Here’s hoping more and more people start valuing their privacy more and more.
uBlock Origin is essential. Firefox (or a hardened fork) with uBlock Origin is the bare minimum protection, IMO. Definitely don't use Chrome or any derivative (which is basically all of them these days, eg Microsoft Edge, Brave).
uMatrix is deprecated and breaks websites by default. I love it, but it's not for everyone. I don't use it on all my devices, though.