Do you know how much of your identity is digitized? What value do you put on the accuracy of that data? How about its privacy?
Our personal data is everywhere. In some cases, it’s captured as a snippet of our identity. In more extreme cases, our Facebook accounts are turned inside out for to advanced 3rd party agendas. These days, algorithms ingesting our information can recreate alarmingly accurate profiles about our preferences, tastes, political affiliation…and with surprisingly minimal input.
When aggregated across the entire human population — interacting with “smart” devices, the internet, navigating public spaces — the figures on data creation are staggering. Data is like the sand of the Sahara Desert, ever expanding outward and consuming everything in its path.
Sizing Personal Data
In 2016, there were 3.4 billion internet users and 3.8 billion unique mobile users. In both cases, that’s roughly half the global population (and growing).
If you’re reading this article, you’re one of them.
On average, each of us routinely spend about six hours a day online. For many of us, it’s easily double or triple the time.
Our data is generated across six primary activities:
- Searching the Internet and using search engines
- Sharing, liking, connecting across Social Media
- Sending texts, burning through data plans, and calling on our mobile devices
- Taking digital photos and storing in the cloud
- Interacting with services through apps and platforms
- Increasing connectivity across the Internet of Things
Collectively, we produce around 2.5 quintillion bytes of data per day.
“Cool. So how much data is that?” you ask. Like recreating Wikipedia in its entirety, 10 million times, every day. Again, 2.5 quintillion is a lot of data.
Exponential Data
Our data creation is increasing at an exponential rate.
The global data economy is valued at roughly $3 trillion today, which is roughly 4% of the value of the entire global economy. If that doesn’t strike you as all that significant, you’re probably right. I believe it’s a very conservative estimate especially when you consider the fact that 90% of all global data that exists today was produced in just the past two years.
According to a World Economic Forum study, ongoing digital transformations in consumer industries have the potential to create $10 trillion for businesses and society over the next 10 years. My guess is this will prove to be a conservative estimate.
And that’s precisely why companies that hoard data have been rewarded with such astonishing valuations on the stock market. Data creation accelerates as networks and platforms expand.
All [platform companies] are out to exploit a powerful economic engine called the “data-network effect”—using data to attract more users, who then generate more data, which help to improve services, which attracts more users.
It goes without saying that the incentive to leverage and monetize this data is inevitable. Nearly $1 trillion in revenue could flow directly to businesses from leveraging consumer data to compete, sell, and operate more effectively.
The value of this data extends well beyond business. Governments mine data to provide critical public services more efficiently and effectively. Researchers use it to speed up the way they develop new drugs and treatments.
Data aggregation provides some social good. We, the end users of services that leverage data, for example, ultimately benefit from free, personalized consumer experiences. These include better Internet search, access to social networks, tailored buying recommendations, better health outcomes, etc. These are the perks for accepting terms and conditions.
I’d bet most of you reading this post enjoy free access to information (free articles), services (music streaming), entertainment (streaming video), and tools (GPS) your exchange of data grants you. I’d also bet most of us would be unwilling to give any of this up.
Of course, we sacrifice a lot for access to those benefits. The balance is by no means tipped in the individual’s favor. For good reason, this is increasingly becoming a point of contention among consumers.
A New Asset Class
Data is increasingly building up on who we are, who we know, where we are, where we have been, and where we plan to go. Our identities and lives are tracked online, in our pockets, and increasingly, by “smart” devices in our homes, in the office, and around the neighborhood.
On its face, we sense an invasion of privacy. And it certainly feels like we don’t have much choice. Both are true to some extent, but the tradeoff can also be very much in our favor so long as we are not passive consumers.
The bottom line: personal data is emerging as a major consumer asset class within the global economy. More regulation is coming down the pike to protect consumers (see the EU’s GDPR and India’s highest court declaring data privacy a fundamental human right). But proactive self-management will be critical to protect and unlock the full value of your digital identity.
Our data trails are mostly inevitable, especially if we want to participate in what the World Economic Forum calls the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Digital hermits are increasingly a thing, but the vast majority of us will be willing to trade our personal data for access to services and networks. Our interaction with devices, services, and mobile communications, social media, and sensors will continue to blur the boundaries between our identities, the internet, and the physical world.
Managing our digital profile asset takes work. Like your savings, your health, your home, your car…data is a growing asset unto itself that should be protected and leveraged for personal success.
But this isn’t enough. Our digital footprint can reverberate far beyond the physical domains we frequent. It may factor into access we have to deals and savings, it can impact our ability to land a job, it can impact our social networks, and increasingly, it can shape our legacy for generations to come.
Currently, the majority of us don’t give our digital footprint a passing thought. According to this Pew study:
Just 3% of self-searchers report that they make a regular habit of it and 22% say they search using their name “every once in a while.” Three-quarters of self-searchers (74%) have checked up on their digital footprints only once or twice.
I started Digital Polloi to share my own experience making sense of the rapidly unfolding universe of managing personal data. The good news is the resources are plentiful, which you can access across this site.
Most importantly, the upside to investing time and energy is abundant advantage (and opportunity) as a consumer and digital citizen.