If companies want access to our private data, they should pay for it

Hello, readers! Welcome back to Business Cycle – a look at what The Globe and Mail’s business columnists are talking about this week. In the latest edition, we’re talking about Canada’s productivity problem, the risks behind cryptocurrency investments and how businesses are making a lot of money off of our personal data.

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Canada’s productivity problem runs deep and ripples far in the economy

By Andrew Auerbach

Canada is facing a national “emergency” in productivity, Bank of Canada senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers warned earlier this week. The country has long lagged behind the United States when it comes to how much the economy produces per hour of work – but the situation has gotten worse. In fact, productivity had declined for six straight quarters.?

Andrew Auerbach , chief executive and co-founder of Delisle Advisory Group, points to Canada’s reliance on oligopolies – when a specific industry is dominated by only a few companies – as one major reason why the country is lacking in innovation.

“It’s unreasonable to expect companies well over a hundred years old with market dominance to be innovation hubs: we must find a way to encourage and incentivize entrepreneurs in Canada in the same way they flourish elsewhere in the world… There is an urgent need for innovation.”

What does Canada need to do to solve its productivity problem? Let us know what you think – and check out the full opinion piece here.?

My ill-fated dip in the cesspool of cryptocurrency

By Rob Csernyik

Is crypto making a comeback? Bitcoin hit an all-time high of nearly US$74,000 on March 14, leaving many investors questioning – and betting on – the future of the industry. But columnist Rob Csernyik remains cautious, like many millennials who were burned by the crypto crash in 2022, saying he eventually cashed out his meagre crypto holdings for about $20 in profit.

“Having spent the last few years grimacing at my portfolio has led me to reconsider my appetite for risk. For me, this was mostly a revision of how crypto fit in. In hindsight, I can see how investing similar dollar amounts in more thoughtfully chosen equities or ETFs would have helped me reach more modest but still reasonable growth goals without the risk of crypto.”

Do you have a crypto horror story? Share in the comments below – and check out the full opinion piece here.?

Canada needs a sovereign wealth fund – built by monetizing our personal data

By Kean Birch

It’s no secret that businesses are collecting your personal data. Companies are capturing data related to your age, email address, social media pages, web browser cookies, retail history and more.?

And as Kean Birch, director of the Institute for Technoscience and Society at York University, concludes: “The more data a business has, the more value it generates for them.” That’s why he writes Canadians could benefit from a sovereign data fund that would monetize personal data, like we do with natural resources.

“We should therefore manage and govern our personal data as a collective asset, like we do with natural resources such as oil. We should have a say in how our data are used and we should derive a share of the ever-growing revenues generated from it… With [a] data sovereign wealth fund, Canada would require firms that want access to our data to pay into it, while it could also provide some oversight as to how our data are used. It would mean that every time you watch an ad, you’d effectively be getting paid.”

Do you think we should monetize our personal data? Would it be beneficial or harmful in the long run? Check out the full opinion piece here.

More business columns we’re following this week:?

• Why big investors want Gildan Activewear’s value to remain in public hands
• The future economy will suffer if Canada axes the carbon tax
• The economic case for more funding for the arts

The Globe's business opinion pieces are commissioned and edited by Ethan Lou. If you would like to write in this section, please send pitches to [email protected].?

Thank you for reading our latest edition! We'll be back next Thursday with another Business Cycle roundup.

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