DNA today, all other personal information tomorrow?
March 31, 2010
I recently read about an instance where the courts decided that a company could not patent a person’s DNA on the basis that it is a naturally occurring substance upon which no patentable ingenuity had been applied.
A ruling of this nature has been long awaited, fought for and fretted over. Michael Crichton fans are familiar with the issue as raised in his recent not so fictional work Next.
This got me thinking. What if ownership rights extended to other types of information associated with a person. Although this time not genetic. But personal, private, transactional, financial, etc?
The implications are quite interesting. Below is my take on what such a future might resemble.
Your information creates income. You now earn an income based on to whom you sell or license your personal information. You sell your data for a fee to those entities (people, organizations) best positioned to manage it per the terms of your contractual agreement with them. You adjust your fee to account for any risk based on criteria, e.g. the quality of your data, the type of data, it’s intended use, etc.
Privacy improves. Entities want your data. Since your privacy remains a key concern of yours, entities work extra hard to protect it. You favor entities best equipped at meeting your needs. You reward them by offering better “terms”. And you have legal/contractual recourse should your rights be violated, deliberately or otherwise.
You improve. Entities want the best data. The better the data the better terms you can negotiate. This means you have an immediate financial incentive to make sure your affairs are in order, as reflected by your information. Another benefit is that having better data puts you in a better position to negotiate a purchase on which that data is based, such as buying a home.
When will people start charging entities for use of their personal information? When will entities start paying for it? What might a market disrupted and transformed in this manner look like?
Only time will tell.
