The typical urban consumer, whose raw personal data is driving this digital data economy
Image: Debajyoti Chakraborty/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Macro-economic inequality in the digitally booming GDP-rich India is glaring (India is a top-five GDP nation globally), where millionaires control a significant portion (approximately 54 percent) of the nation’s GDP, leaving the per-capita GDP in the country too low for it to be lowly ranked. India is ranked around 145th in the world on nominal per-capita GDP. A considerable portion of the ‘non-millionaire’ population live in smart urban cities and have access to the various varieties of smartphone apps (for on average 3-4 hours a day) and IoT devices (such as smartwatches, Fitbit) that aggregate a plethora of an individual’s lifestyle data in real-time and economically transact on them in the opaque value chain. Examples of widespread personal data (PD) include basic personal information like age and sex, expressions/emojis from social posts and messages, financial transactions data, photos, web surfing data, interaction data with a smart fridge, smart thermostat or other IoT devices, calendar events, sport activity data from Fitbit, location data, and travel data.
However, the typical urban consumer, whose raw personal data is driving this digital data economy (or the fourth industrial revolution), plays a rather passive role as they are often (unfairly and inequitably) left out of the value chain that transforms their data into huge monetary benefits using powerful AI and psychological tools. To cite an example, market data suggests that more than 95 percent of Meta’s (erstwhile Facebook) revenue comes from advertising that solely relies on consumers’ personal data. This business model can only be successful if the adverts are successful too. Recent studies in the western world show a diverse range of the monetary impact of personal data on the earnings of ecommerce firms and society…