Last month, I did a blog entry on how Google and Facebook had ensured the age of Big Brother was upon us. Both are collecting our personal data which they can then sell to advertisers. How much is the stuff worth? A fortune! Google and Facebook make millions from your personal details.
Kashmir Hill at Forbes says that Rapleaf, an online tracking company which sells information to advertisers, has provided some details. Stuff like your household income is worth 0.01 cent to advertisers, your income, marital status, presence of children, home owner status, home property type, length of residence and home market value is worth 0.05 cents, and if you're a high end brand buyer, it's 0.03 cents. That doesn't sound like much but if you have a few hundred thousand clients for each one, it adds up.
These companies make millions off our personal data. That's why the World Economic Forum has declared our personal data to be a whole new asset class for business. Trouble is most of us don't even know how our information is being used.
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