- Sam Jones, once a Red Bull global brand manager, has launched a campaign calling on the UK government to clamp down on online data brokers.
- The big data market is expected to be valued at more than $85 billion internationally by 2025, according to online stats aggregator Statista.
- The campaign calls for a compulsory 'single click' opt-out for consumers being tracked online while demanding citizens be given a share of the profits derived from their data.
- Jones' startup, Gener8, allows online browsers to choose what kind of ads they want to receive and be paid for it.
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A former global brand manager at Red Bull has launched a campaign calling on the UK government to clamp down on online data brokers.
Sam Jones, previously a senior exec at the energy drinks giant, said he had seen "some really shady shit" while working in the highest ranks of online advertising. According to online statistics portal Statista, the big data market is expected to be worth more than $85 billion globally by 2025.
The data broker sector is largely unregulated, with few laws in place governing their practices. Data brokers are largely invisible to the public and scoop up huge amounts of personal data through social media sites, email signup lists, and hundreds of other sources. As noted by Privacy International, the ecosystem of data companies is tangled and complex. Oracle, both a software firm and data broker, relies on more than 100 other data companies to source its information.
The result is internet consumers have no idea who has collected data about them online or how it is being handled. For example, if a data broker obtained incorrect information about you, it might link you to a third party and negatively affect your credit score.
Jones, now the CEO of data rights startup Gener8, which offers customers the ability to choose what type of ads they see online and profit from them, said the way data brokers operate currently was "staggering".
"I think one day we will look back on this period and wonder how it was ever so," he said. "The fact that there is so much value being derived from people's personal data, but they neither know who's collecting it or seeing any of the returns, is ludicrous."
Jones' campaign, calls for a "Digital Data Dividend", has filed a public petition with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which can be found here. It calls for a compulsory "single click" opt-out to be installed for those who do not want to have their information harvested online, and for companies to "financially compensate people when they make money from selling their data."
His company, Gener8, effectively works as an online ad-blocker, while also allowing users to choose the kind of companies they are happy to receive ads from. After a period of time, users can recoup this exposure in the form of tokens, such as Amazon gift cards. Jones says once he has built up a large enough user base, the firm will switch to providing cash incentives.
In 2018, Vermont legislators enacted new laws forcing data brokers to register with the state. When registering, they also have to disclose whether consumers are able to opt out of data collection, retention and, if so, how. They must also adopt comprehensive security programs and reveal any security breaches.
Even under Europe's GDPR legislation, British consumers have few means of dealing with data brokers acting beyond the continent, said Paul Bischoff, a privacy advocate at tech comparison site Comparitech.
"Perhaps the biggest obstacle is that data brokers that have data on UK residents aren't necessarily based here, so laws passed there would do little to stop data brokers in other countries," he said.
"The UK could adopt a similar law to what was recently passed in Vermont. The state created a mandatory registry for data brokers that gives residents a single place to find information about all the companies that have and sell their data, as well as steps they can take to delete it.
"This strategy has been met with mixed results, but I think it just needs to be refined and enforced."
Business Insider approached the DCMS for comment.
