Myware and Spyware

smooth wombat writes "A new startup aims to provide you with a piece of software that stores all of your sufing habits. Where you go, how long you stay, how many hours online you spend surfing, etc. Why? So you can then offer that information to companies in exchange for something of value. Seth Goldstein's company is in the early testing stages of a service called Root Vaults which right now only works with Firefox. You can choose whether to send this data to your Root Vault, some other service, or just store it on your computer. There are a few restrictions on the use of this data. From the article: 'Any company that uses this data must agree to four basic principles: the data is the property of the user, it can be moved from one service or device to another at will, it can be exchanged for something of value, and the user has the right to know who is using it and how.'"

How much

[Anonymous Coward]

is the information of a single person really worth? I don't see how the time and effort would be worth it to install this program and then sell the data.

Something of value?

[Aladrin]

Something of value? A penny is of value. And they can require you amass 10,000 pennies to cash out your value. This clause prevents nothing.

Besides which... Companies can already obtain this information without the user knowing, why would they pay?

right to know?

[engagebot]

"it can be exchanged for something of value, and the user has the right to know who is using it and how."

we'll see how this works. i think if they're *buying* the info from you (aka you recieve value for it), i'm not sure how much say you have over what they do with it.

Great Idea...sort of

[jasongetsdown]

So make you info available on your own terms. Great idea, but why barter with each individual when you can still buy their info wholesale. Data wholesalers aren't just going to go away, and this still doesn't keep others from tracking you without your permission.

Cheat the system

[Arthur B.]

Remembers me those "get paid to surf" adbars... eventually people will find a way to cheat the system to make more money, making the stats useless.

I suspect a complete non-starter.

[Control Group]

What value is there in my personal data? How important is highly-specific tracking data on one person? The value of marketing data, in my understanding, is in being able to match marketing to potentially profitable demographics. As such, personal data is highly valuable in volume, but I doubt the value of any individual's information. My grocery store is willing to give me a couple bucks in discounts every couple weeks to track my purchasing habits. At a guess, I'd say it would amount to maybe ~$100/yr if I took them up on it.

But that's a long way from actually paying me money. And even if real cash were involved, how many people are going to trust the system enough and go to the effort of proactively doing this for the prospect of an extra $100/yr?

My guess is, not enough people to make the marketing data harvested worth the money or effort. And that's not even considering that companies are more than capable of getting most of this information already at no cost...

But I could be way off base, or missing something.

Re:Wow...not a bad idea

[gcw1]

As far as I'm concerned spyware is never a good thing. Especially the ones that claim you have control.

5th provision

[jasongetsdown]

I'd like a 5th provision to the agreement. The data will not be linked to my identity. I don't mind providing anonymous stats but I want at least a little privacy.

Who owns the information?

[erroneus]

I really wonder who owns the information being brokered. It leads me to a lot of questions... some not related to this topic specifically though.

One question I ask myself is if I can copyright my personal data. And when I see the information being misused, can I then sue for copyright infringement?

Tinfoil-hat Comment

[Stan Vassilev]

"A new startup aims to provide you with a piece of software that stores all of your sufing habits. Where you go, how long you stay, how many hours online you spend surfing, etc. Why?"

Here's few why:

- So it can gain user's trust, but is in fact glorified spyware
- So police has an easy storage to inspect should RIAA/MPAA decide to sue you for visiting pirate torrent trackers, grokster.com or other such activity (hey, you're not anonymous! they, OMG, they got your IP!!)
- So malware has an easy storage to collect user info for it and send it out, instead of collecting it itself.

And what if the company owns your comp? (Empolyer)

[Elixon]

Perfect tools for watching behavior of your emplyees? Isn't it?

"Hello John, I noticed that you read the slashdot and the window with the slashdot page has a focus about 3hours average every day. You are fired." ;-)

Grocery stores do it too.

[tom2275]

The local Albertsons grocery store has the same program. You sign up for one of their "reward cards" and you get discounts off many items. On a typical $200 shopping, I'll save $15. Selling my info is worth it there, why not online?

Re:Grocery stores do it too.

[the chao goes mu]

Of course, in the days before discount cards they would have given those discounts to everyone and called them "sales". So, actually, they are giving out fewer discounts than they would have and getting marketing info for free.

Re:Grocery stores do it too.

[Anonymous Coward]

Tesco in the UK (where something like 1 in every 8 pounds are spent) has such a successful club card program that they are the source for marketing info. Forget focus groups & highly paid marketing analysts, want to see how that new packaging is going to work? Just get it on the shelf at a Tesco or two. Want to see what your product's Price-Demand curve really looks like? Set it a deal with Tesco to screw with prices in a few different stores.

Now you can take the stance that Tesco is simply reaping more profits than before due to the value of their club database, but in reality they have reduced the cost of a product getting to you by improvements in efficiency in product marketing. Any widely available reduction in cost in a reasonably free market will result in lower prices.

Re:Grocery stores do it too.

[ShadowBlasko]

Finally it is worth something here.

Kroger stores with attached gas stations will give you ten cents per gallon off of your gas purchase (one per) if you purchased over $100 in groceries in the previous month. This is good for one gas purchase per $100 in purchases.

Now that can add up fast, and it is obvious that gas prices are competitive with others in the area. (I also live very close by, and we will fuel multiple cars per purchase, sometimes over $200-300 in gas)

That is saving me REAL money, and I can not detect that grocery prices have risen to compensate, so I am all for it.