Records of customer “past” behaviour appear to hold some value. If this was not the case, why would anyone spend money “mining” the information?
Records of future customer intention appear to hold some value. If this was not the case, why would anyone spend money on “market research”?
Identity is for sure a personal thing. If this was not the case, why would we speak of identity theft?
Privacy and confidentiality are very deeply rooted in trust. Trust that is conferred, sometimes tacitly, sometimes explicitly, by the individual. Who has a personal identity.
Modern web applications create value out of customer information. Granted, some of the value comes from the aggregation. Some of the value comes from the connections. But some of the value still comes from individual customer history and preferences and intentions and activity.
So.
How long before this value gets converted into a price? How long before this value can be traded? How long before individuals trade their information?
David Bowie only sold his back catalogue.
Maybe one day Generation M will be trading their back- and front- catalogues.
As we look deeper into identity and privacy and confidentiality and value creation from customer behaviour (both past and present) we may need to think about this as well.
Sometimes “Follow the money” is a good way to find solutions to difficult problems.
Just a thought.