Who puts the price tag on your data?
Data, data, and data! The generation is fed up of data manipulation, data privacy, data connection and data charges. Everything’s data and a group of people still believes that data is something that helps you connect to the internet (in a way, they are right).
Data & Information
Raw data is something that keeps the internet going, processed data which is popularly known as information keeps the business going. If you’re still not clear about the data that we are talking about, it’s your details!
- Name
- Age
- Phone
- and sometimes your girlfriend’s ex.
Well, don’t laugh. Do you know the fact that Facebook knows a lot about your girlfriend and her past than you?
At least you should’ve once had this question inside your mind.
“How do these companies generate revenue, while giving everything for free?”
That’s a brilliant question and that simple question will fetch a dangerous answer which is never going to be comfortable. No, this article isn’t pointing to Facebook or Google picturing them as a terrorist.
The very fact that we are writing this article is because of Google which helped us learn about data manipulation and privacy, Facebook helped us to reach out to professionals who are into big data industry.
Blogs wouldn’t really survive without these companies. Everything is useful (if used properly) but we have to give something in return to let them survive.
Profiling & Artificial Intelligence
When you signup to sites like Google or Facebook, you agree on the terms and conditions without reading them (nobody wants to get bored intentionally). The terms and conditions have a lot of stories to tell, and it’s mostly about the data they collect from you and the way they use it.
You have a profile!
Not your Facebook profile, but a profile in the backend which has all kinds of data inside a capsule. Data such as your contact details, name, interests, your passion (you might not have discovered it yet), your history (wink, wink) and even more about your personal information.
Machine learning algorithms which are mathematically developed programs that analyze these raw data and processes them into information. These programs are so intelligent and fast, they require high-end servers to process the data, but who cares about the money when you’ve data.
There’s even more to tell you, and it’s endless.
Price Tag
Imagine you’re running a business, you’re a professional in 3D printing interesting mobile cases. You created your first design and you had put it on Amazon to sell them.
Now, someone is coming to Amazon in search of an interesting mobile case and assume that he/she really liked your case, but had no money to buy them.
Now, you can follow them on Facebook and almost everywhere on the Internet! Guess how?
Remarketing techniques allow businesses to keep track of the customers who show interest in their product and then showcase the product ad on Facebook Ads or with AdWords (Google’s platform for advertisers).
When the buyer who showed interest in the product gets the money to buy that product, she will be able to easily track the product via Facebook because the ad is still following him/her (and then she buys it).
The advertiser made money out of selling his mobile case, companies like Facebook or Google made another big buck out of the advertiser. Billions of dollars are transacted like this around the world all because of data.
This is just one part of the story and the advertisers help companies to put a price tag on your data. There’s even more, to explore deep inside the sea, but who has the oxygen to do it?
