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The Value of Personal Data

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Privacy and Identity Management for the Future Internet in the Age of Globalisation (Privacy and Identity 2014)

Part of the book series: IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology ((Tutorials,volume 457))

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Abstract

This chapter discusses the value of personal data from two complementary perspectives: the value of personal data for firms and the value of personal data for individuals. The chapter starts with a short introduction into the rise of personal data markets – markets basically driven by the economic exploitation of personal data. Then the chapter discusses how firms asses the value of personal data. This can be done from different angles, such as stock value and revenues. Another inroad is the costs of data breaches. A second perspective which is discussed is the valuation of personal data by individuals. Some empirical studies are presented that show how individuals value their personal data and what choices they tend to make. The chapter concludes with placing these developments in the frame of the upcoming data protection regulation. Data protection by default has relevance when taking the empirical studies seriously.

This chapter is largely a reproduction of Chap. 2 of the TNO-report: Roosendaal A. Lieshout, M van, Veenstra AF van (2014). Personal Data Markets. TNO report R11390 [10]. The original chapter has been written by the author. It has been adapted for this publication.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See the change in phrasing between [14, 15] on this subject.

  2. 2.

    See www.patientslikeme.org.

  3. 3.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_public_offering_of_Facebook (accessed March 17, 2015).

  4. 4.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_public_offering_of_Facebook (accessed March 6, 2015).

  5. 5.

    http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/30/facebooks-q3-13-beats-with-2-02b-revenue-0-25-eps-with-49-of-ad-revenue-now-mobile/ (accessed March 6, 2015).

  6. 6.

    http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/927ca86e-d29b-11e2-88ed-00144feab7de.html (accessed March 6, 2015). BTW: in order to access these pages one has to register oneself, thus adding to the value FT derives from its subscribers!.

  7. 7.

    https://ioptconsulting.com/ft-on-how-much-is-your-personal-data-worth/, referring to http://backgroundreport360.com/ (visited March 6, 2015).

  8. 8.

    Juro Osawa, May 9 2011. ‘As Sony counts hacking costs, analysts see billion-dollar repair bill.’ Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748703859304576307664174667924 (accessed March 6, 2015).

  9. 9.

    http://quotes.wsj.com/SNE/interactive-chart (accessed March 6, 2015).

  10. 10.

    Having only a few illustrations in which the price of personal data was calculated, the findings are only illustrative. More research is needed to turn the findings in more robust conclusions. However, this is outside the scope of this article.

  11. 11.

    The webforum ‘Patients like me’ offers an example that shows that patients are willing to share sensitive and personal data, hoping it will help in improving treatments for the rare diseases which they suffer. See http://www.patientslikeme.com/ (visited March 7, 2015).

  12. 12.

    See http://shawnbuckles.nl/dataforsale/ (visited March 7, 2015).

  13. 13.

    http://shawnbuckles.nl/dataforsale/. While some of these data categories seem to be rather straightforward, some pose problems. Email conversations, for instance, do not only contain information on Shawn Buckles but could reveal information on those with whom he communicates as well. And what precisely Shawn Buckles considered to be his thoughts is not identified at his website.

  14. 14.

    Shawn Buckles published a Privacy Pamphlet on his website. The Pamphlet intends to raise awareness for the way how personal data are used for marketing purposes, and how the market of personal data ‘lures’ people in the trap to sacrifice privacy for ‘free’ services.

  15. 15.

    This could identify those people who really care about their privacy. The study did not conclude on this matter since it could not be asked (being a purely observational study that was constructed such that no direct link to privacy was made in the design of the field study).

  16. 16.

    This gap is identified in many studies. People tend to value what they own above what they do not own and are thus willing to pay a higher price for keeping what they have than for achieving the same when not having it. See [1, 2].

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. TNO, Van Mourik Broekmanweg 6, 2618 XE, Delft, The Netherlands

    Marc van Lieshout

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  1. Marc van Lieshout
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Correspondence to Marc van Lieshout .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. IBM Research Zurich, Rüschlikon, Switzerland

    Jan Camenisch

  2. Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden

    Simone Fischer-Hübner

  3. Unabhängiges Landeszentrum für Datenschutz Schleswig-Holstein (ULD), Kiel, Germany

    Marit Hansen

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van Lieshout, M. (2015). The Value of Personal Data. In: Camenisch, J., Fischer-Hübner, S., Hansen, M. (eds) Privacy and Identity Management for the Future Internet in the Age of Globalisation. Privacy and Identity 2014. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 457. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18621-4_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18621-4_3

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