
Should we treat data as labor? (2018) - simonebrunozzi
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pandp.20181003
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memexy
> In the digital economy, user data is typically treated as capital created by
> corporations observing willing individuals. This neglects users' roles in
> creating data, reducing incentives for users, distributing the gains from
> the data economy unequally, and stoking fears of automation. Instead,
> treating data (at least partially) as labor could help resolve these issues
> and restore a functioning market for user contributions, but may run against
> the near-term interests of dominant data monopsonists who have benefited
> from data being treated as "free." Countervailing power, in the form of
> competition, a data labor movement, and/or thoughtful regulation could help
> restore balance.

This is one of Jaron Lanier's arguments. And I guess Tim Berner-Lee's as well.
Individuals should own their data and corporations should pay for access to
it. Or at least the dynamics of who owns what should be re-thought because
when two visionaries think the current model is broken the rest of us should
probably take notice and think about what they're trying to say.

> Nilay Patel: How do you make people’s data valuable? Do you have to pass a
> law?

> Jaron Lanier: It has to come from multiple directions at once. I think there
> should be laws. I think people should be encouraged to take advantage of
> labor law if it’s powerful in whatever country they live in or whatever
> other body of law might be available in order to bargain for the value of
> their data and be able to create mids that extract value for the benefit of
> the people the data comes from on their own terms.

> "With advertising you're never going to get the motivations aligned,"
> Berners-Lee said. That's a common refrain with websites and apps that must
> serve two masters -- those of us using them, for whom privacy is desirable,
> and the advertisers funding them, for whom privacy makes ad targeting
> harder.

\--

[https://www.cnet.com/news/web-inventor-tim-berners-lee-
wants...](https://www.cnet.com/news/web-inventor-tim-berners-lee-wants-to-
give-you-your-data-back/)

[https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/9/18302076/data-
monetization...](https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/9/18302076/data-monetization-
control-manipulation-economy-jaron-laniers-virtual-reality-vr-vergecast)

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gentleman11
The idea is interesting. How do we download the paper?

