As a TechRadar reader, you're savvier than most when it comes to what personal data you share. You've revised your Facebook settings away from the default 'share everything to all people everywhere' and you pause for thought before you hit the 'allow this app to know information about your inside leg measurement' button.
But this, I'm afraid, is just the very tip of the iceberg.
The potential value of data to insurers is the most obvious way of pointing out how sharing data can have negative consequences for the consumer. It could be overt, like car insurance providers giving out black box recorders for your car. Or it could be more covert (and currently futuristic), like a health insurer upping your premium because your fitness band data shows you spend most of your leisure life on the sofa. But either way, it does matter.
Working out how much your data is worth, and what you are OK with being in the public domain is increasingly something you should be aware of. One thing is for sure: companies are already investing heavily in the data market, and it could be worth a trillion dollars by 2020.
When YouTube was acquired by Google in 2006 it valued each user at around $20 dollars. By 2012 when Instagram was snapped up its users were valued at $30 and then when Whatsapp was bought by Facebook it valued each of us at around $42.
Something we're giving away is being snapped up by corporations who can package it and sell it on. So what's your data really worth? Is privacy really no more valuable than a chocolate Easter egg? Does the hypothetical $42 dollars sound a bit too cheap? Maybe privacy is priceless, and it's time we treated it that way.
