
Datacoup – Unlock the Value of Your Personal Data - potench
http://datacoup.com
======
the_duck
I briefly considered connecting my credit and debit cards to Datacoup, but
their dialog box set of warning bells. It asked for my card number and my
online banking password. These are the same as my online banking credentials.
In principle, with that information, Datacoup would be able to log in to my
bank's website and drain my accounts.

It seems incredibly foolish to give this information to ANYONE over the
internet. Why should I trust Datacoop with it? That's not a rhetorical
question.

~~~
aggronn
You could investigate the people in charge of the company and their backers.
If you think they have more to gain by draining a small number of peoples bank
accounts than they have to lose by committing a federal fraud crime then don't
use them. Obviously any evaluation would also depend on the credibility of the
information presented on the website about those individuals.

I don't make any purchases with my debit card, so I would only link my credit
card, which has pretty solid fraud protection. I'd probably be more way about
cash accounts.

~~~
alcari
The problem isn't necessarily with the intentions of the people running the
site. It could be an attacker altering the site to steal the information.

------
akbar501
Conceptually I love the idea. I have thought about this business idea for a
long time, but never got over the issues with it to pursue it.

The main insight I got when doing customer interviews was that many people
don't like the idea of others accessing their data when its raised to the
foreground, but are perfectly ok with it when it's "hidden". The other issue
is that the amount of cash required to make this interesting for the avg.
person is relatively high.

On the business side, when interviewing VPs Marketing/Sales, the #1 question
asked was "What additional value does this bring beyond what we already
have?". This is a valuable question to answer b/c massive amounts of data are
already collected on each one of us. To be valuable, a business like Datacoup
needs to convert this data into insight that can be used to help companies to
sell more.

With all of that said, I hope Datacoup is successful. It's a great idea and
one that I personally like.

~~~
otoburb
> On the business side, when interviewing VPs Marketing/Sales, the #1 question
> asked was "What additional value does this bring beyond what we already
> have?".

It's true that massive amounts of data are being collected, but the better
value proposition for customers to sign up is: "Billions of dollars are spent
by companies on advertising; you deserve a slice of that."

>The other issue is that the amount of cash required to make this interesting
for the avg. person is relatively high.

I also ran into the exact same dichotomy when sussing out this idea, namely
that people don't mind monetization of their data exhaust/patterns "for free"
or in nominal exchange for a foreground service, but being asked to give this
in direct exchange for monetary compensation makes them demand a very high
premium for the exact same data.

EDIT: Personal.com is establishing a track record of securely consolidating
and storing sensitive information. I can't help but think that controlled
sharing of personal information (extending beyond core password/address/credit
card/banking details) will be their next big push.

~~~
johnmaguire2013
I think he was saying, what value does this add for marketers (i.e. those
buying the data)? They already have many ways to get users' data, and at
(likely) a lower cost.

~~~
otoburb
Oops missed that completely; thanks for the clarification! For purchasers, the
short-term value-add would be: a) another verified channel of specific user-
preferences; b) potential for high-touch permissive advertising (e.g. let me
pay you $0.10 so I can spam you because you have a potentially higher
conversion rate due to all the extra details you let me access).

Data vaults like DataCoup are in essence trying to appeal to purchasers by
initially demonstrating large reach (similar to newspaper/magazine/website
exposure to raw number of eyeballs), and up-sell the ability to more quickly
and more accurately zone in on attractive demographics, down to the individual
level, than a competing 3rd party ad-broker harvesting browser fingerprints +
cookie combinations or Amazon/Google.

Form example, individuals may eventually sell a list of companies they: "have
bought from; may buy in the future; commit $X to buying within 90 days."

Also, individuals can be made aware that prices for their information tuple
assets may devalue if they specify faulty or inaccurate information (e.g.
selling information stating that they would buy $X from a company in category
Y within 90 days, but failing to actually follow-through). This is rather
similar to a credit score, except a "purchaser" or "consumer" score may be a
more accurate description.

This isn't to say that _everybody_ would choose to participate in such a
program or give up such information willingly, but at least this level of
hyper-personalization and ad-bidding would become available (in theory!) to
both the data purchaser and the end-customer, eventually.

EDIT: Data vaults all aim to become canonical ad-broker exchanges as the next
step in the evolution of agency ad & media trading desks[1]. If this sounds
like trading in the financial sense, it absolutely is. No coincidence that the
founder of DataCoup is an ex-bond trader[2].

[1]
[http://www.adexchanger.com/Agency_Trading_White_Paper.pdf](http://www.adexchanger.com/Agency_Trading_White_Paper.pdf)

[2] [https://datacoup.com/docs#about](https://datacoup.com/docs#about)

------
bsimpson
I was really hoping this was like Google Takeout, but with adaptors for all
different sorts of services. I thought the value prop would be to backup and
analyze your own data, not to sell it to the same people who already creep
everyone out when Facebook sells them your data.

~~~
uncoder0
We're launching the exact thing you describe which also includes an API later
this week. We don't plan to be a data broker just to let you backup all your
data from any source and provide you with an API to access that data. We're
Muxy.io

------
hoopism
Reminds me of an art installation that worked like an ATM for your data. You
plug in your cellphone and based on how much data it was able to scrape it
would dispense money. Usually less than a buck. Was interesting to see how
many people were willing to try it.

~~~
lazyant
"More than 70% of people would reveal their computer password in exchange for
a bar of chocolate, a survey has found."
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3639679.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3639679.stm)

~~~
proggR
Oh god help us. No wonder social engineering is still one of the more
effective hacking methods :\

------
SoftwareMaven
The most intriguing possibility here, IMO, is the ability to show other people
how much those free services really learn about them, and how much they sell.

------
lshemesh
This sounds like a promising idea to me. Transparency into what data you're
giving away and a monetary incentive is a win win IMO.

------
otoburb
This older article indicates that DataCoup was originally paying beta
subscribers $8/month for their data[1]. Always risky trying to seed two-sided
markets, but the rewards could be substantial if they can establish their
credibility over the long run as personal data-brokers.

[1] [http://www.technologyreview.com/news/524621/sell-your-
person...](http://www.technologyreview.com/news/524621/sell-your-personal-
data-for-8-a-month/)

------
th0br0
"Datacoup is lining up data purchasers to sustainably purchase data on the
platform. However, to get the ball rolling, Datacoup is the primary purchaser
of your data."

Uhm...

~~~
spacefight
So they have no idea on the true ask price...?

~~~
otoburb
That's what they're attempting to establish in a nascent 2-sided market where,
by other proxy measures, the value of personal information is close to zero
for large swaths of the uneducated digital population.

I use the word 'uneducated' because presumably the working hypothesis is that
once data-awareness is raised (i.e. "you can actually get paid to share your
data!"), the corresponding market-price of various personal information
tuples/assets will rise.

EDIT: As a single other data point, AT&T's cable division called U-Verse is
offering a fiber plan called GigaPower that effectively pays subscribers
$29/mo for their participation in the AT&T GigaPower Internet Preferences
(i.e. consensual data-mining) Program[1]. The "payment" is offered in the form
of a price delta between the Premier (i.e. data-mined) tier for $70/mo, or the
Standard tier for $99/mo[2]. So, at least one large corporation believes that
household web browsing data is worth $29/month which is a good proxy for a
price ceiling on how much personal data could be worth in the medium term.

[1]
[http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB421828&cv=812#...](http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB421828&cv=812#fbid=JUNeIt0J13u)

[2] [http://www.eweek.com/small-business/att-u-verse-with-
gigapow...](http://www.eweek.com/small-business/att-u-verse-with-gigapower-
launches-in-austin.html)

------
potench
Can't find many reviews (1) of the service provided, and for some reason I'm
wary of the responsibility of selling my own data. Has anyone tried this
service?

1\. [http://www.technologyreview.com/news/524621/sell-your-
person...](http://www.technologyreview.com/news/524621/sell-your-personal-
data-for-8-a-month/)

~~~
nikku
I connected about 4 accounts and the rewards/week were $0.60.

Have not tried giving them access to my debit/credit cards, that would
definitely raise the reward but now sure by how much.

------
the_equalizer
wtf, a person's data spread over 6 accounts must be worth more to you than 1
dollar a week. i mean i understand buying low and selling high, but this is
bs, this service is taking advantage of the public outcry over privacy by
giving people incentives to sell themselves online, because online you are
your data. go get a real job mate!

------
mralvar
I'm getting "IllegalArgumentValueExceptionFaultMessage" when attempting to
sign up.

