We have witnessed a recent event where data of 87mn Facebook users were exposed to a researcher who worked at Cambridge Analytica. What was even more distressing was that we are not even aware about how did the research firm harvest that data?
If fallen into the wrong hands, data can be a weapon to drive various nefarious outcomes, such as influencing an election.
Now this is not the first time a data leak has taken place in the world of internet and mobile apps. If we look around, a normal user during availing basic services online (web or mobile) opts in (mostly unknowingly) and end up sharing a whole bunch of data points about him / her to companies.
To bring things into perspective, Dylan Curran (Technical consultant) tweeted about what is the scale of data being tracked by the likes of Facebook & Google. To bring things into perspective, I am listing down the data points below tracked by Google:
- Stores your location (if turned on). You can see a timeline of the places you have been ever since you started using your mobile device
- Stores your search history across all your devices on a separate database, so even if you delete your search history, Google still has access to it
- Stores information on every app used by you, and every possible meaningful metric such as time spent on app, location while using that app, what time you go to sleep etc.
- Stores everything you have searched on Youtube so far, so they know exactly what content is interesting for you, your personal likes and dislikes and what stage of life you are in (Eg: if you searching for pregnancy related videos)
- It has an option for every user to download all the data it stores, I tried it for myself and I got a 7GB BIG file, which is roughly equivalent to 5 mn word documents. This has all the data you could imagine ranging from your booksmarks, emails, contacts, google drive, photos, music choices, search history etc.
I am cutting it short right here, as this post would run into multiple pages, if we do a proper deep dive of the data points being tracked.
To get an idea whether companies abide by their terms and conditions, you need not look too far. Google itself admitted that it tracked user location data even when the setting was turned off.
Source: Reuters
In short, if you using an Android Phone, Google may be tracking every move you make
It is quite evident that the likes of Google and Facebook are tracking so many data points because these data points are extremely valuable for them, infact this is what drives the core of their business – Advertising.
Let’s look at why Companies need data and what makes it valuable for them?
The crux for successful companies lies in the following:
Make the right Product, Target the Right Consumer
Data finds its way in making crucial decisions for businesses in every stage, be it launching a new product, increasing your sales or optimizing your processes.
a)Data helps Companies understand Consumers & the Market: In the digital age, without data and insights derived from it, a Company would be fiddling in the dark. The clearer you see your Customers, the easier it is to reach out to them. Eg: For an FMCG company, data helps them to spot which products are hot in the market, which in turn would lead to better inventory management.
b)Launching New Products: Whether you a startup trying to launch a new product or you are a big Company trying to come up with a new line of product, Market Research into why you should launch the product becomes crucial. We see multiple startups failing around us and struggling to reach their potential, same applies for big MNCs where not every product launched is a success. A big reason behind this is incorrect assumptions or bias about the market and their product, which usually arises if people don’t have the right set of data points about the market.
Now this phenomenon is well recognized by Companies all around the world. You would have heard this claim multiple times “Data is the New Oil”. Every other company has a “Data/Big Data / Analytics” division which focused on slicing & dicing the relevant data points and coming up with useful business insights. There has been a lot of progress around data analytics such as new tools & tech which makes it easier for companies and quickens their decision making.
Well if that is the case, why are Companies still struggling to strike gold with every decision they make? Apart from other factors, there are still multiple problems with the Data Brokerage Industry.
Problems in Collecting Personal Data
First of all, not every company is Google or Facebook and they don’t have access to a lot of first-hand information about their prospective / current consumers. Let’s analyze the problem from the point of view of a firm, which commission a market research study to analyze a certain issue w.r.t their product.
These kinds of studies typically cost a bomb (if you don’t want to compromise on quality), even after spending a lot, you are not sure whether the data points collected are fake or not. Every user, inherently has some sort of inhibition while sharing their personal data (with consent).
Consumer’s Top Privacy Concerns when it comes to sharing their Data with Companies
The above table clearly shows that the Consumer is clearly worried about how Companies are using his / her data.
The data brokerage industry is broken from both the ends, Companies are paying to get Consumer data, but the sanctity of that data can’t be assured. On the other hand Consumers are not comfortable sharing their data (that too for free) and are worried if they can be individually tagged based on their data.
Introducing PDATA Token atop Opiria Platform
PDATA aims to build a decentralized personal data marketplace. With the help of blockchain technology, PDATA aims to eliminate the middlemen and give the power in the hands of the Consumers.
Let’s simplify that a bit.
Any person out there is a walking set of data points for a Company or a data broker. While there are multiple data points about the person such as his demography, likes, dislikes, online activity etc. not every data point is useful for a Company.
For eg: If a Company who wants to launch an e-commerce app would be more interested in the person’s online behavior, his spending patterns, time spent online on ecommerce websites, spending pattern and most importantly his / her earning potential.
Now what if, the Company can direct a bunch of specific questions to this prospective user base and ask them to share their answers / data points. This is where it gets really interesting, how would PDATA differentiate this process from what happens in the market today?
How does Opiria Platform empower the End User?
- Consumers on the platform have absolute control over what they chose to share with the Companies
- They get paid in lieu of sharing their personal data
- The data shared is encrypted and is in anonymized format
All the above steps are carried out, without the involvement of any middlemen in the platform. This ensures, that the data points are not used for multiple companies or for anything which the consumer has not opted for.
The Opiria Platform essentially puts a value on Consumer Data, which in turn motivates the end user to share relevant information with their consent. Imagine the number of data points tracked by Google & Facebook every day, what if a user has the option to monetize those data points? Sounds too good to be true, right?
Well, all of this is now possible on the Opiria Platform. The end user is compensated via PDATA tokens, which can eventually be cashed out in FIAT (if the user wishes to do that). The more the user wishes to share about himself, the more valuable his / her profile becomes to Companies and in turn the more money the user stands to make via the platform.
The key thing here is that the choice always rests in the hand of the end user. For eg: I might be comfortable sharing my ecommerce spending patterns for a survey, however I would not want to share my medical history. A consumer is totally free to participate in one survey, skip the other, share less or more.
More data however, doesn’t mean that the user’s privacy is being compromised. The platform ensured that the data is encrypted and whenever it leaves the user, it stays encrypted.
How does Opiria Platform helps Companies?
Accurate Data: The first and foremost issue solved by Opiria Platform is accurate data of end users. When consumers willingly share information and that too when they are compensated for it, the likelihood of accurate data increases manifold.
Faster Response: The platform has multiple touchpoints with the end user including mobile apps, websites among others, which makes it easier to reach out and collect responses. With the rich data set already available in terms of user profiles, a Company can directly reach out to a filtered set of users, thus reducing time to action, which can be critical for Companies in a fast-moving environment.
Optimum Mix of Data Points: Opiria uses multiple touchpoints to capture user data apart from surveys. These include mobile apps, website plugins, wearables & other smart devices. These are all of course added only after a user opts in for the same.
Opiria Platform is already a Revenue Generating Company
Usually when we try and analyze upcoming ICOs, in 99% of the cases, the Companies are in whitepaper phase, i.e. they don’t have a working product. However, in the case of Opiria, the platform, it is already being used by various Fortune 500 companies globally. It is operated as research platform, helping companies to understand consumer needs and requirements. The vision of the Company as outlined in its ICO is to combine its existing platform with PDATA tokens built using blockchain and smart contracts.
About ICO
~ 750mn PDATA tokens will be created by the Company, out of which, 60% will be sold during the pre-ICO and ICO period.
One token is worth $0.10. The soft cap is set at $30 million.
A private sale with 50% bonus will be held until April 9th, 2018 followed by a public pre-sale from April 10th, 2018 to April 20th, 2018.
The Public Sale will begin on April 21st, 2018 and will end on May 21st, 2018.
The bonus on day 1 of this sale will be 15% and the bonus will go down by 1% each day.
Summary
The data brokerage industry has been growing at breakneck speed over the last few years. This has been possible due to the smartphone and mobile data revolution all over the world. As more and more consumers come online, the amount of data footprint left by them increases every day.
While new tech has come up to help make sense of these data points, the one fundamental issue which exists today is around privacy and accurate targeting. PDATA Token atop Opiria Platform beautifully addresses these core issues, in turn building a powerful game changing product for Companies and at the same time making sure the end user is not cheated.
PDATA with its vision, team and already live product (Opiria research platform) is rightly positioned to disrupt the data brokerage industry worldwide.
To know more about this, kindly visit:
Website : https://www.opiria.io
Whitepaper : https://www.opiria.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/PDATA%20White%20Paper%2020180118.pdf
Btalk ANN : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3076122
Telegram : https://t.me/PDATAtoken
Published By: maxxxks
Btalk profile: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1929209
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The amount of data tracked by the likes of Google and Facebook is really scary. I have always wondered that there are 2 sets of people, one who care about their privacy and ones who don't. The people who don't might as well make money of it and the people who care, can exercise some control. Will be interesting to see how PDATA goes about it.