“Data is clearly the new oil,” — Jonathan Taplin, director emeritus of the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab and author of Move Fast and Break Things: How Facebook, Google, and Amazon Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy.
Personal data matters a lot. It’s not just what you searched for, where you were, what you shared, what you bought –it’s a record of who you are. This is valuable information that can either work for you, or work for companies that collect it.
Data brokerage is a $250 billion per year industry and it’s grown 13.5% over the last four years. This is because it’s the resource that fuels the digital economy. Internet behemoths routinely track your online activities and sell this data to third parties you’re not aware of.
Most of these practices serve legitimate purposes. Data is the way companies see the world. They use it for insights into how to build better products and improve customer relations, benefiting consumers as well as their bottom line. However, there is no real need for any intermediaries to be in the business of profiting from your personal information.
As scandals like Cambridge Analytica come to light, the need to take back control of personal data becomes more evident. Likewise, government regulations such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation are increasing restrictions to data mining practices to protect consumers from bad actors. This shift in attitude is sure to affect companies that are now dependent on large bulks of detailed costumer information they buy from companies such as Facebook, Google, and Amazon.
Opiria promises a better solution to these needs and an answer to the growing tensions.
“With the PDATA token and the blockchain-based Opiria platform, we want to create a global decentralized marketplace where companies can buy personal data directly from consumers without any middlemen.”
This proposition sees how the changing tide could benefit sovereign individuals instead of centralized data monopolies. A blockchain platform is an ideal medium for companies and consumers to exchange valuable information directly, with an embedded respect for privacy.
Opiria enables this exchange through its PDATA token. Every PDATA token holder will be able to choose directly when, how, and to whom their online information is sold. More so, they will be compensated for it in proportion to the value that their data provides. As an ERC20 token, PDATA is also a guarantee that each user’s personal data will be cryptographically encrypted and resulting transactions will be secured on the second largest blockchain on the market.
While this change of terms is certainly beneficial for individual privacy, it also adds value to companies that rely on buying data from brokers to know their costumers. Bypassing unnecessary intermediaries allows them to receive information straight from the source: the consumer. This results in more detailed, specific, and precise data. More so, given sufficient financial incentives consumers might be willing to disclose information they wouldn’t reveal otherwise.
Opiria’s platform is the ethical evolution of a profitable business. Its proposition doesn’t stem from an unproven idea but from a service that already provides client data and surveys to Fortune 500 companies such as Procter and Gamble, Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, Audi, and General Motors.
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