For many years, platforms such as Facebook and Google have tracked user data — from browsing history to email addresses — and deployed that to offer companies targeted advertisements. In 2017, Facebook earned $20.21 per user this way, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission — its 1.94 billion monthly active users at the time would have brought in $39 billion in revenue. But none of that money was shared with users. Then there are the violations of data privacy: In April, Facebook confirmed that it’s likely to incur $3 billion to $5 billion in fines from the Federal Trade Commission, potentially for sharing user data without explicit consent. 

Now, a host of startups are threatening to challenge that model and force Facebook and Google to adapt — or suffer — with an alternative approach that gives consumers the option to both control their own data and to profit from it. Killi, an app launched by global data company Freckle IoT in 2018 in the U.S. and Canada, lets users decide which pieces of data they want to share with brands in exchange for cash — usually between $3 to $5 per month. Killi is gaining around 10,000 users per month, and it expects to have more than 1 million users by the end of the year, says Freckle IoT founder and CEO Neil Sweeney.

Brave, in prerelease phase at the moment, allows users to opt for a Brave Rewards browser version, where their data will be tracked but stored securely on their browsers — rather than with the company. Users can choose to not interact with targeted advertisements, but if they do, they get 70 cents in cryptocurrency on every dollar Brave earns. Those who don’t opt for Brave Rewards get the regular browser, which is ad-free. The prerelease version has already drawn 5.9 million users and 55,000 publishers.

YOU, AS A CONSUMER, REALLY HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH OF YOUR DATA IS BEING COLLECTED.
NEIL SWEENEY, FOUNDER AND CEO, FRECKLE IOT 

And Wibson, a mobile app launched in Argentina, Spain and the U.K. by data platform Grandata in 2018, is a blockchain-powered marketplace where users can sell their data to companies that know they’re getting far more authentic information directly from users than is possible from the algorithms used by big tech firms at present. Users earn $3 to $5 per month in Wibson tokens, a cryptocurrency that runs on the Ethereum blockchain network. Wibson, which is already working with Spanish telecommunications giant Telefónica, has racked up 10,000 users and has facilitated more than 100,000 transactions so far — without storing any user data. 

 
“We see Wibson as a challenge to the current principles and a way for the people who are generating data — the real data owners — to get some benefit,” says Rodrigo Irarrazaval, marketing manager at Wibson.    

To be sure, getting billions of Google or Facebook consumers to suddenly switch to Brave, Killi or Wibson is an uphill battle, says Ashley Nelson, who teaches social media and communications at Tulane University. And for now, the amount users can earn through these apps is small — it’ll buy you a snack every month, no more. That’s because these apps can’t yet offer advertisers the volume of data that firms like Facebook and Google promise.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.ozy.com