Data: World’s Most Valuable Asset?

There was a time when oil companies ruled the world. Oil was the world's most valuable resource in the 18th century and the function key of everything from the government to local companies. But this critical commodity may have a new replacement:?Data.

In short, data are raw ingredients collected from various sources from which an analyst or data scientist can perform statistical and predictive analysis for different purposes. Over the past 30 years, data has generated wealth at a breakneck pace. The evolution of the Internet, computers, and many other devices has created a human reliance on technology, underlining the importance of data.

Data more valuable than ever

Apple, Amazon, Alphabet Inc., Microsoft, and Meta are among the most valuable tech companies in the world that directly generate profit from data. They know more about our daily interactions with gadgets than we ever will. These companies collect vast amounts of data from hundreds of millions of users daily.

Who is producing data?

We're all producing data. As you read this article, you've probably executed a few searches to land you on this page. Also, I assume you've done a few Google searches in the past few days and have several social media accounts. Each query you submit on the web is a new piece of data created. Despite all the benefits we reap from mobile phones, they are a liability in human life. Most social media usage growth is projected to come from mobile phones.

Facebook

Facebook, an American online social network service that is part of the company Meta Platforms, is one of the most extensive social networks worldwide. Its accessibility through multiple mobile apps and websites significantly affects its success. It was founded in 2004 by Harvard students Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. Primarily, the service was available only for Harvard students but later expanded to regional universities such as Yale and Stanford. During its fourth quarter in 2019, Facebook reported almost 1.66 billion, daily active users.

In January 2020, 98 percent of active users worldwide accessed the social network via mobile phone.?

With these devices, we're producing a massive amount of data and will be creating exponentially more soon.?

Facebook generates billions of dollars of revenue, with most of it coming from advertising. The platform allows advertisers to target users at scale with incredible precision, which is why Facebook is dominating the online industry.

Facebook generates most of its revenue from digital advertising, thanks to the data it collects from its 2 billion users. It accumulated an impressive $55.8 billion in annual ad revenues in 2018. Almost all of Facebook's ad revenue is generated via mobile.

Mishandling data and privacy violation

With time and technology, privacy has become an illusion and a very personal and nuanced issue. Any application you use, whether it is Whatsapp or Instagram, both applications purchased by Meta for $1bn and $19bn respectively, or any other social media account or any website you visit installs a "delicious" cookie on your device which acts like a spy to track your every move and action on the web. While surfing the web, you are unintentionally leaving your digital footprints, which tech companies can monetize your data. The same applies when you click on an ad or watch it on Instagram or Meta. Meta monitors your every move across the web, even when you log out. It keeps track of the sites you visit, when and what time you visit, and shows the advertisements accordingly. This goes to show that data has become its most valuable asset.

While data is valuable, trust must be the most significant value. In late 2018, Facebook faced a vast scandal concerning data privacy in connection with CamFacebook'slytica (CA). This London-based political data analysis worked on the 2016 Trump campaign. The firm was accused of improperly accessing over 50 million Facebook profiles. The data was acquired via a third-party app called "thisisyourdigitallife" created by Aleksandr Kogan, a researcher at the University of Cambridge. The application was downloaded by over 300,000 people required to take a quiz. In exchange for taking the quiz, users receididn'tsmall monetary reward. But to take the quiz, users must log in with their Facebook account, giving the application access to their personal information, including the posts they have liked and their friend list. At that time, Facebook's platform API allowed developers to access information about you and your friends. Was Facebook in the wrong??

On the one hand, the method they developed to provide user data to corporations was potentially violating the law. Still, on the other hand, some responsibility could be attributed to the user. When the service is free, the user is the product. Facebook would not have become one of the most valuable companies in the world if it didn't have something to offer advertisers. When you sign up for Facebook, you have agreed to the Terms, Data, and Cookie Policy, which most users ignore. It is up to the user to decide what to share or post on Facebook. Most of them share personal information like where they live, where they work, where they went to school, and what they're doing at any given moment. When you share any information, the user must bear some responsibility.

Data Ownership

So far, we have seen how data has become a valuable asset to tech companies. But why must it only be beneficial to tech companies? Aren't we all producing the data that made these companies successful? Should it not be valuable to us also? Or are we just walking raw materials for those tech companies??

Data is precious but is controlled and owned. Meta will continue to provide you with its service for free in exchange for the right to collect and use your data for advertisement purposes. The public discourse is focused on the regulatory and privacy issue regarding data ownership.?

But what if we look at data ownership in another way? What if we could benefit from what we create in the new digital economy?

Data ownership is a legal concept where you can create, possess, use, modify, share, destroy, trade, or sell your asset at a price set by you. What if we give that exact definition to individuals' data so that individuals can use or destroy our data, or we trade it at our chosen price? If you're not willing to sell your data for any cost, to remind you that you're already selling your data for free in exchange for a service if you're connected to Facebook. If you control your data, you could either donate your data to medical research that is very meaningful to you or set a price tag for it for companies that would want to use your data.

Some tools allow you to take back some control.

Brave Browser

Released on November 13th, 2018, Brave Browser lets you surf the web without installing cookies that track and monitor your every move. You are protected by Brave Shields, which blocks all data-grabbing ads and trackers and cleans the digital footprint that you leave behind. With Brave, your data is kept private, and your attention is rewarded. When users opt-in to accept ads, Brave rewards use "basic attention tokens" that can redeem content behind paywalls from publishers. Brave Ads do not collect information about you. You control the ads you want to see.

Universal Basic Data Income (UBDI)

UBDI helps people to make money by sharing anonymous insights through their data for companies that can use them for market research. Whenever a company purchases a study, the user gets paid in cash and UBDI points to track their contributions for special rewards and voting rights. UBDI changes the game by protecting your data, respecting your choices, and ensuring you are compensated for the billions of dollars generated from every swipe, click and step you take!

DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is a search engine that does not store your personal information, follow you around with ads, or track your browsing history. Instead, it gives all users the same search results instead of based on your browsing records.

Conclusion

Data is to the information age as oil is to the industrial age, an immensely untapped value asset. Oil has transformed the world into a better place by generating extensive wealth and prosperity. Oil was the key to the smooth functioning of everything. Data may hold a similar potential since it is responsible for creating companies like Facebook. However, it needs to be ethically extracted, distributed, and monetized. We're in a digital economy where data is precious. Without it, progress would halt.