The propositions that Handshake is built upon seem quite simple in principle (see Duncan White’s “What is Handshake” post? ): 1: information is valuable 2: there are people who have information, such as their personal data, and there are people who want that information, such as advertisers, analysts and businesses of all kinds 3: both people can benefit if they can work out a mutually acceptable ... »
In the TED talk, ‘What physics taught me about marketing’, Dan Cobley, a marketing director at Google, speaks about the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle. In a nutshell, this means that it’s impossible to exactly measure the position and momentum of a particle, because the act of measuring changes them. Dan’s “marketing takeaway” from this was that we should measure what consumers actua... »
Personal data has considerable value and people are starting to recognise it. That’s because wherever they go and whatever they do it seems that there are people asking them for that data. From multiple questions when we make even the simplest of requests, to the cookies that are loaded onto our browsers as we surf the net, to the repeated requests to provide feedback and complete surveys, every ... »
A recent article in the UK’s FT, Companies scramble for consumer data, June 12th 2013, shared some intriguing but puzzling insights into the market for personal information. Perhaps the strangest was a proposition which seemed to suggest a complete inversion of normal market economics. The reporter, Emily Steel, started her article by observing that: “Corporate competition to accumulate informat... »
Since Edward Snowdon, the US whistle-blower, first leaked details of the NSA’s PRISM and related programs on June 7th, two clear themes have emerged within the ensuing debate. The first is the notion of exchange and the need for this exchange to be equitable. President Obama and others have sought to justify the PRISM program in terms of the exchange of privacy in return for (increased) security,... »
