

Ask HN: What is an email address worth? - ecaron

During the summer of 2009, there was a lot of buzz about the estimated value of a confirmed email address. IBM even went so far as to say an email contact is worth $948 (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_much_is_that_email_contact_worth_948_say_resea.php). Since then, the topic has gone relatively quiet.<p>Given all the hacks lately seem to involve grabbing databases with large numbers of likely legit-and-used email addresses, is there potential for these hackers to be making a lot of money in the spam game? Or have those techniques and ideas gone the way of the dinosaur? And is there value to an updated approximation to the worth of a user's email address, so companies can give proper respect to the data they've been entrusted to protect?
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qq66
A confirmed email address is not worth $948 to IBM. What's worth $948 is an
email address voluntarily submitted, saying "I am interested in IBM products.
Please tell me more."

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Akl20
Spam in the modern era is relatively easy to control. However, there are
numerous other ways to make a fortune off 300k+ credible emails...

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kposehn
My thoughts exactly.

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taphangum
Depends on who owns it

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marcomassaro
Dollar per email

