Overall, KDnuggets readers were evenly split, with 50% not willing to sell their data, and the rest were willing, for a $500/year or Market rate. East Europeans were the most willing to part with their data, while West Europeans were the most privacy conscious.
| Would you be willing to sell your Facebook data to advertisers ? | |
| No, at any price (114) |  50.2% |
| Yes, for $10 or less/year (3) |  1.3% |
| Yes, for $50/year (5) | 2.2% |
| Yes, for $100/year (17) | 7.6% |
| Yes, for $200/year (5) | 2.2% |
| Yes, for $500/year (33) | 15% |
| Yes, for Market rate (49) | 22% |
The following table shows the regional breakdown of 225 voters, with bar height corresponding to the number of voters from the region, and bar width: % willing to sell (at any price). The US/Canada voters were split 50/50. The East European were the most willing to sell, while the West European were the most conservative.
| Region (voters) | % Willing to sell |
|---|---|
| E. Europe (19) | 68% |
| Other (AU/NZ, Latin America, Africa, Middle East) (19) | 63% |
| US/Canada (105) | 52% |
| Asia (30) | 43% |
| W. Europe (52) | 37% |
Comments
Gregory PS, Editor, June 25, 2012, Facebook as "information market"
To justify its huge valuation of $70B ($80/user) Facebook needs to find ways to monetize the huge amount of information it has on its users. One interesting idea was proposed by NYU Prof. Vasant Dhar -
Facebook as an information market.
Would you be willing to sell your data to Facebook?
Mike Kennedy, June 27, 2012, Personal Data Locker Marketplace
Great topic! What's interesting is there's already a series of start ups in the "personal data locker" space which, in effect, lets you manage your own personal data as you please. Here's one example:
lockerproject.org
I would encourage you to check it out (I have no stake in the company, it's just a cool concept).
I think it's interesting that the end user can now sell his or her personal information back to the social media firm, which makes sense. After all, if there is no product (ie Facebook, LinkedIn), you are the product.