• by George Simpson , Featured Contributor, March 8, 2018

A column this week argues that when you navigate around the web and post to social media, you are not only giving up valuable data about yourself (which social media in particular monetizes), but you are also providing free data to train artificial-intelligence systems destined to replace workers across the economy.

Not that AI hasn't already proved itself invaluable in spotting troubling trends like the spread of diseases and traffic tie-ups. But now it wants your job.

Everybody thinks AI will only affect the other guy's job, not theirs:  You know, truck and taxi drivers, media buyers, researchers, news writers, admissions officers, etc.

I am totally convinced that most routine PR will be automated in short order. It’s hard to think of a profession that won't need fewer workers when AI ramps up to its fullest potential.

How does it feel to be accelerating that inevitability every time you log on?

The larger issue raised in the column was what kind of value to put on the crumbs of data trails you leave on the web, and how social media and other websites can reward you for letting them make money by selling your crumbs to marketers.

Interesting that this is only an issue now, when banks, credit card companies, loyalty programs, publishers and such have been selling your data for decades — and no one ever said, “Hey, yo! Where's my check?"

It has a been long internet journey from "eyeballs" as a proxy for site visitors to today’s ability to cross-match data from all over hell's half acre to pretty much deliver an ad designed to appeal to the individual YOU (even if you only open it .000085% of the time, and the bots never do). All of this has been fueled by online businesses harvesting your data crumbs and either using them for their own targeting algorithms or selling them to others with similar intentions.

But should you be somehow compensated for allowing others to grab it?

There have been dozens of businesses that tried and failed to establish a value for your online attention, most offering cheesy rewards for clicking on ads. And more are on the way.

All of which presumes you even care. I suspect you don't. This is data you don't really think about, or really much care about, since you figure it’s part of the value exchange for all of the great stuff you can do online, most of it for free.  

Now, the Europeans are all over this issue, contending that data collection without your consent is a terrible sin. In May they’ll launch some new laws that will at least force companies to more explicitly ask whether they can use your crumbs. If you choose to negotiate with them, that’s your choice. Good luck with that.

Just as ad blockers and cookie blockers have not put much of a dent in the online ad business, I suspect it won't take the Big Boys (Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc.) long to figure out the loopholes and jump cleanly through them. And I strongly suspect this move will not involve compensating you (unless it's something like an upgrade or exclusive content that you might have otherwise had to pay for).

Perhaps knowing that your data may one day put a loved one out of a job will jump-start greater interest in crumb compensation (or collection avoidance).  But right now this issue seems to be very low on the Things To Worry About Today list.