Prediction: The Slide Away From"User as the Product" Has Started

[engine]

I predict we're at a turning point for the "user-as-the product" model and it is about to start a slow and steady decline.
In part because people are waking up to privacy.
Also, in part because people are waking up to that exact fact, "they are the product." Being used.

The latest attempts by big business to show people what is stored about them will, perhaps, surprise some, but will hasten the decline from the model, imho.

I also predict the positive side of things, in that people will start to pay for their privacy, which offers business opportunities.

[graeme_p]

Any real signs of it? Smart home stuff seems to be taking off, Android and IOS are too firmly entrenched to be displaced easily. IOT stuff is selling. Tracking is being embedded in other products like cars - I even recently read about a company trying to sell permanent RFID (or similar) tracking in clothes. Things like Amazon Ring and surveillance apps are doing fine. At best it might improve on the web but the web is now just part of where information is gathered.

[RhinoFish]

Legislation will nibble away at the edges, but in the next few years, new technologies are going to obliterate 3rd party data companies and those who rely on it.

Ad blockers are just the start.
Tokenization, Block Chain, VPNs, Anonymizer Tools and more are going to change things.

They've been getting our personal data for free for so long, the future will have them either completely deprived of it, or paying for it.

If you look at the list of companies that have been hacked, you'll soon realize that taking control of our data is the only way forward that serves the individual.

[ken_b]

They have enough private personal data now that if the flow were completely blocked right now, they can probably fairly well predict the direction of the users for years to come.

I'm a boomer and fairly careful about my privacy, but even if I was as careless as could be, plenty of my peers data been scooped up by the truck load, that any reasonable repository of our combined data could probably speak for all of us.

I'd still like to see the scooping stopped.

Three times in two weeks an outfit I deal with on a regular basis has been unable to find my account, or apparently anyone's account for that matter ... "it's glitch" they say ... really? I can't help but wonder if it was a glitch or a hack that a good backup was able to work around.

[cnvi]

Interesting thoughts.. few observations.

The cat is out of the proverbial bag. People ask/tell search engines and social things they wouldn't dare ask their spouse/partner/SO.

Even if govt. gets involved and there is some future legislation limiting the data already collected on us, the data is already out on the dark web being resold and resold daily. It would surprise you to know how many know so much about very private details about your life. Countless elements of your life's details are known by anyone who will pay for the data.

Yes I do also foresee a market for paid for privacy products. But unless you have avoided search or social (unlikely), its already out there. And then there are those security breeches where credit unions and fortune 500's get hacked.. Most pay the ransom to get the files back but do you think the thieves just toss the files when they are finished with them? Heck no.. they sell and resell that information. The big search companies that haven't been completely hacked (yet) sell your information anyway.

It's all out there.

And then there is a segment of society that does not care. They don't care who knows what anyone knows about them, what car they drive, what booze they drink, their commute route to work.. even very embarrassing details such as medical conditions that can affect relationships, etc. They just don't care.

There are also segments of society that can't afford privacy products, or are too ignorant to understand the concepts we are discussing here.

I do not see how the scooping of data can ever be stopped.. Most of our products (especially electronic) are made overseas where its easy to bundle snoopware/malware into everything.

I hate to be cynical but I do not see this world getting any better anytime soon. If I knew what I know now 20 years ago, I would have never brought children into this world.

Technology can be used to better our lives.. but the crooks who hide behind spoofed IP's will keep taking advantage of what I call "the broken internet" until a newer more secure version is created.

And we all know who should foot that bill with their 50 billion a quarter in revenues and climbing.