Email marketers should be rightly wary of
the announcement by Invisibly that it has launched a platform to help people regain control of their personal data while also profiting from it.
“By creating a platform that lets
people make money from their data, we’re not only educating people on how valuable their data is, we’re telling big tech it’s time to change the way things are done, and time to
start fairly compensating people for the data they regularly profit from,” states Don Vaughn, head of product at Invisibly.
According to the company, consumers will be able to opt in and
choose the data they wish to share, and that data can be licensed to advertisers, the company claims.
How this “passive earning model” will work is not precisely clear. But
Invisibly claims that consumers can “earn points for different ways of linking or sharing data, which can then be exchanged for money, paid to you directly.”
Vaughn adds that
people can now “n make a few dollars a month from sharing their data on our platform, but within the next couple of years, we hope that people will be able to earn around $1,000 per year from
Invisibly.”
The product is now in beta.
Invisibly says it found in a recent survey that consumers remain suspicious of firms that exploit their data.
Of
those polled, 79% do not approve of companies that do so. And 77% want to control access to their data.
However, the results vary by age. For instance, 87% apiece in the 24-40 and 55+ cohorts
disapprove of firms that profit from their data. So do 85% in the 41-54 age group.
Younger consumers also disapprove — but not quite as many, with 74% apiece of
individuals ages 18 and under and those 18-24 saying they also disagree.
The remainder agree, “It doesn’t bother me.”