While many people talk about data being gold, there are those that advocate the privacy of it, and there are more that want to eliminate it entirely. The reason of course is that data is an online commodity that is meant to be bought and sold, and the most valuable data is the type that is associated to you, the casual browser and reader of other people’s data.

Rather, the stories you read online, the news you consume, the sports you ingest all lead the data buyers to want more. Want more of your data to dissect and ingest to present you with the best possible user experience.

1. Advertising

Data is very important to advertising. Without the data on you, the users, there would be no other reason for ads to be online. The internet would have died years ago, and what about the technological revolution we are currently living in? Without ads, advertising, and targeting of data, there would be none of it.

Many people hate advertising, advertisers, companies that are associated with anything to do with ads. Without it, none of this would be possible. The internet as we know it would not have evolved if there was no way that the advertisers could have benefited from running ads online.

The ad game has changed and evolved at a rapid pace over the last few years into a more exchange oriented environment. Companies such as AdMeld, AdTech, and even OpenX all operate on an exchange model over the traditional old school ad server – client/end user publisher advertising model.

2. Targeting

You need data to target. Plain and simple. There are some companies that get in trouble with it as they go beyond the non-invasive type of data or non Personally Identifiable Information (PII) type, into the more invasion of your privacy type – the type that tells the above advertising people that you are looking for a new car. And not only a new car, but the specific color, model, and maybe even the local dealership you want to make that purchase at.

This type of data is of course why data has become an online commodity. Bought and sold. Traded like the stock market. Ever wonder how they came up with the term ad exchange? With the ad industry being a billion dollar a year industry, you can bet your last cookie today that they will target you.

Privacy gurus will forever fight on about this invasion, but in the end will probably lose the battle since data is such a huge commodity. Data being a billion dollar a year business that is already is, it won’t be shut down completely.

3. Startups

How many startup companies rely on it? Do I need to even go there? Without data, many startup companies wouldn’t even exist. Most would be twiddling their thumbs working for some cubicle farm. I’m mainly referring to the programmers and thinkers outside the box type of people. The founders of these companies wouldn’t be doing what they are doing if it wasn’t for the data. They may be startup founders, but without the data aspect, what would the actually start-up?

These are the people that came up with companies like Bit.ly, Compete, Lookery, Perrformable, Shareaholic, BlueKai, Exelate, etc.. These companies all rely(ied) on the data that was out there. Data that could easily be manipulated into a sale-able item. People want to buy it.

Who are these people? Well the companies in #1 and #2 above come to mind. Even newer startups that don’t have a model based on data now realize that data is the way to go. Companies such as Twitter, YouTube, and even Facebook know the value of data even though data was never their first goal.

Technically Speaking, those 3 items alone will continue to drive the data business forward. It’s big business, and business is very good for those that are known as the data brokers.

Related articles

• The battle for online privacy (bigbrotherwatch.org.uk)
• Online Behavior Tracking and Privacy: 7 Worst Case Scenarios (mashable.com)
• Online behavior tracking and privacy: 7 worst-case scenarios (cnn.com)
• Online Privacy: 7 Worst-Case Scenarios (abcnews.go.com)
• The UK needs to change its cookie policies (econsultancy.com)