Your Data: The New Currency

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the brokerage industry moving to $0 commissions and referenced an old quote: “If you are not paying, you’re not the customer. You are the product.” Across all industries, more and more, human data is the currency that is being traded. Facebook, for example, makes its money on ads; ads that are targeted to its users in a very specific way. Most people get it and are appropriately conscious of what they post and how they interact on the site. It’s sort of like an internet version of that camera at the gas station. You know your Facebook is watching you and if you spend a lot of time on there looking at cars, you will see some car ads in your feed.

Most of us are also aware that we are being tracked in other vague, unknown ways. Is my laptop camera running? Is my phone listening? That sort of thing.

Last month, The Times reported on some of the secret ways our data is tracked and I happened to come across the article this week.

“As consumers, we all have ‘secret scores’: hidden ratings that determine how long each of us waits on hold when calling a business, whether we can return items at a store, and what type of service we receive. A low score sends you to the back of the queue; high scores get you elite treatment.”

Who’s Collecting Your Data?

I’ve always expected that as companies gathered more data, they would begin to analyze and share it in new and astonishing ways. What surprised me is how pervasive it already is.

Included in the article are several companies that collect your data and instructions on how to request your file from them:

• Sift, which determines consumer trustworthiness, asks you to email [email protected]. (An earlier version of this article contained a link to an online form; the company disabled the page after receiving thousands of submissions.)
• Zeta Global, which identifies people with a lot of money to spend, lets you request your data via an online form.
• Retail Equation, which helps companies such as Best Buy and Sephora decide whether to accept or reject a product return, will send you a report if you email [email protected].
• Riskified, which develops fraud scores, will tell you what data it has gathered on your possible crookedness if you contact [email protected].
• Kustomer, a database company that provides what it calls “unprecedented insight into a customer’s past experiences and current sentiment,” tells people to email [email protected].

Of course, I requested my files, but I haven’t heard back yet.

Interestingly, providing consumers with access to their data is a recent development. Many companies still don’t share this information. The 2018 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) law passed in Europe, which has slightly influenced American businesses. Most experts agree that more regulations will follow in the U.S., and some companies are proactively adapting to these changes ahead of time.

Fake Reviews: The Price of Deception

Skincare brand Sunday Riley recently made headlines after the FTC exposed the company for posting fake reviews on its products on Sephora’s website between 2015 and 2017. While we all know online reviews can be faked, this case is particularly eye-opening because the CEO, Sunday Riley herself, was directly involved. Emails revealed her instructions to employees, advising them to “be very enthusiastic without looking like a plant” and “write a review that says the opposite” if someone left negative feedback.

It’s hard not to wonder how comfortable the CEO must have felt asking employees to participate in such blatant fraud. Ultimately, the scheme was uncovered by an employee whistleblower.

Despite the severity of the fraud, the penalty was minimal. FTC Commissioner Chopra criticized the settlement, stating it could send the wrong message to the market. Dishonest companies might see fake reviews as a viable strategy, while honest firms could be left wondering if they’re losing out by following the law. Consumers could also lose trust in the authenticity of reviews altogether.

For those of you holiday shopping online, be cautious about fake reviews. You can check a product’s review authenticity using Fakespot, which assigns a grade from A to F based on review quality. Interestingly, even after the exposure of its fake review campaign, several Sunday Riley products scored as high as a “C” on the site.

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• Why White-Collar Workers Spend All Day at the Office 
• Florida Keys Deliver a Hard Message: As Seas Rise, Some Places Can’t Be Saved
• SoftBank to Have ‘Last Laugh’ on WeWork Deal, Bernstein Says 

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