datacoup

[datacoup]

Diving into data

Data Findings 2 — Bonobos, Men’s Retailer

In our 2nd data findings installment, we’re going to dive into some more purchase information and see what we can unearth.

As a reminder, here is the sample composition

Gender: All males

Age: Mostly 25–35

Location: Mostly coastal US-based cities

Average time range of purchases: 10 months

In our first installment, we took a look at purchase amounts across all categories and across just retail. Judging from our findings, we have a relatively well-to-do group represented in this sample.

From the sample group, let’s take a look at the number of transactions, by merchant, across all categories.

This is a ‘No Surprise’ slide. This is the kind of stuff we buy everyday: Taxis, ubers, coffee, songs, recurring monthly charges, etc. Somewhat surprising is the number of taxi purchases vs. Uber and Lyft rides. If you remember, the sample is mostly 25–35 year olds in coastal cities. You’d figure that Bonobos shoppers would overwhelmingly use on-demand ride services, but I guest taxis still enable convenience for a preponderance of our sample.

Sidebar 1: both Uber and Lyft raised at the turn of ’15 to ’16. Uber raised ~$2bn at 62bn and Lyft $1bn at ~$5.5bn. The valuation ratio is about 9% Lyft/Uber ($5.5:62bn), but the purchase frequency from our sample has a 13% ratio Lyft/Uber (42:310).

Sidebar 2: It would be really cool if we could tell who in the sample used Amazon prime vs. regular Amazon, so we could differentiate buying behavior. But alas, that is not data we have!

OK, let’s take a look at average transaction size for the sample, across the top 10 merchants, across all categories of spend.

In our eyes, Stubhub and Ticketmaster are interesting vendors on this chart. Perhaps when buying tickets, people purchase for a larger group. Hotels and equivalents (AirBnB) claim 3 of the top 10 spots. Why not, lodging is a big ticket item… Maybe the biggest on average. Insurance, airlines and retail (just Barney’s) round out the rest of the top 10.

So our Bonobos shoppers travel quite a bit, make the regular urban repeat purchases (daily transportation, coffee, delivered goods), but also buy auto insurance (Esurance and Safety). Maybe our coastal-city folk commute to work using cabs and rideshare, but are weekend warriors and leave their urban dwellings for greener pastures on Saturday and Sunday in their cars.

More to come!

[datacoup]

Users Unite to earn from our data

We’re launching a new campaign called UsersUnited. It’s a clarion call for internet users to unite, in order to gain enough leverage to start getting compensated for the valuable data we create everyday.

There’s a $200bn market, annually, for data in the US, so we know our personal data is valuable. Right now we don’t get any of this value. We think there is the potential for each of us to earn hundreds, if not more, from exchanging our own data.

Leverage can be gained at 100,000 users (maybe less). The significance of the number comes straight from the horse’s mouth. In our conversations with potential partners and data purchasers (brands, retail, CPG, investment firms, banks, insurance co’s) that number continues to be a key threshold for purchasers/partners to sustainably purchase dynamic data.

Not to get too nerdy, but companies that use consumer data to make business decisions need a certain level of confidence in the data, known as ‘statistical significance’. The 100,000 number helps achieve this significance level, which means companies will start paying you for data once we reach the goal.  

Throughout the course of Datacoup’s lifetime, we’ve also learned that consumer purchase history is the golden goose of data. That’s why we are asking you to connect your primary spending card to the platform. We never see or store your username or password on our servers. Our access is ‘Read-Only’. It’s safe and secure.

Here’s what it takes to become a member:

Three simple steps: 1) Basic demographic info, which serves as the anchor for the data 2) Facebook Connect, which provides basic profile information 3) Credit/Debit card connection, which provides the key data-set (purchase history)

Your data sits safely in storage until purchasers are ready to start buying your data. Once the goal is reached we will help you sell your anonymous data to many different companies. Your anonymous data, combined with the other 100,000+ people looks like this:

What will companies do with this? Many of them (brands, retailers and investment firms, for example) want to segment the anonymous purchase data by age, gender, location, and then find patterns in spending behavior across different consumer segments. The insights from the data will help them make actionable decisions, which will improve their businesses.

Unfortunately, many companies are buying data about us now, but they are paying big dollars to shadowy 3rd party data brokers and other ad-tech/marketing-tech surveillance companies.

This. Is. Crazy.

If we are creating a valuable asset every day, why aren’t we using it ourselves to gain economic benefit? Why are we letting someone else effectively steal it and profit from it?

Let’s take a specific example: Insurance companies are dying to know more about their customers. In fact, Hancock Insurance is giving 15% off annual premiums to policy-holders who are willing to share fitbit data. If you’re paying $1,000 per year in life insurance premiums, then you just saved $150 by “selling” your data.

This all begs the question, how much can you make from selling your data? Well, if you can save $150 by sharing with insurance, think of how much more you can earn by sharing more data with your bank, carrier, retailers, investment firms and other market research entities. We think in a mature market, a consumer can create hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars worth of value by exchanging their data.

So get on board, sign up, and share it with your friends. Let’s get to our 100,000 goal as quickly as possible!

[datacoup]

Anatomy of a data heist

I was doing a daily Twitter scan to look for articles and information relevant to our business. I came across a link to an article about a partnership between Hilton Worldwide and Uber. The nature of the partnership was such that if you were taking an Uber from the airport and staying at the Hilton, then you could see hotel and check-in information from the Uber app and also make room or other requests/adjustments, notify the hotel and perform other functions through the Uber app.

Cool stuff.

The link is here, but given what happened to me, I'd urge you enable an ad-blocker. http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160330005332/en/Hilton-Uber-Expand-Partnership-Unveil-App-Integration I read this article some time in the late morning or noonish EST on Wed 3/30. I am not a Hilton Honors (HHonors) member. At least not as far as I know.  I've never received an email from the Hilton Honors program email address... Until 2pm on 3/30 after I read the above article on businesswire.

So what happened here? I have an email account set up for commercial solicitation, potential spam and other non-personal communications. This is the email account in which I received the Hilton Honors email.

It would have to be a coincidence of epic proportions to have received an email for the first time ever, from a solicitor (Hilton), who's article I read for the first time a couple hours earlier.

So I navigated back to the site and used ad-blocker/tracking-tracker Ghostery to see which prying eyes were festering on this site:

Ding ding ding. Looks like we have a winner! Look on the right side of the image, and see the 4 entities tracking me. Pardot. Lead gen/Marketing automation platform within Salesforce. I can't be 100% sure, as there are other possible leak points in the ad-tech chain. Perhaps my cookie was sent to a DMP (Data Management platform) when the inventory was being bid on, and the DMP matched my cookie with my email, and notified the solicitor (Hilton) to send me an email.

So how did this work? I have not deleted my cookies in a while on my work laptop, so it's very likely that somewhere along the way in my internet activities (buying stuff, using social media, perusing and reading content), my cookie was triangulated to match my solicitation email address. With that info, Pardot (or any other perpetrator) knows that every time I browse certain subject matter, or certain articles that may contain content about one of their clients (Hilton Honors, for example) they can alert their client of the viewing and share my email with the client without my consent. It’s possible that my cookie was sent to a DMP (Data Management platform) when the inventory was being bid on, and the DMP matched my cookie with my email, sold it to Pardot (or some other lead/gen platform), who notified the solicitor (Hilton) to send me an email. It’s hard to be totally sure what happened. And THAT’s a large part of the problem. I have so little control and insight into what’s happening with my data. 

When I clicked on that article, I did not sign anything that granted the perpetrator rights to sell my email. While they probably did not break any laws, they certainly broke with societal norms, and general consumer expectations.  

It's short-sighted for the ad-tech and advertiser community to operate this way. This is the kind of stuff that pisses people off: I don’t know who has my data  I don’t know what they are doing with it  I don’t know how much they are profiting from it  I don’t know if they are continuing to sell my contact information

Do any consumers like this? Ad-tech and their advertiser overlords continue to cut off their nose to spite their face. Like an addict, the ad-tech community appears to be sated by only amassing more personal data about us. Eventually, consumer sensibilities will be so impinged upon, that a revolt is imminent. You can argue it’s already started (200mm ad-blocker downloads world-wide ring a bell?) 

Apple, Intel, Unilever, Facebook (yes, Facebook) and others are talking about and preparing for a world where the consumer exerts far greater control over their data. 

If it’s what the consumer wants, then as a business, you’d be crazy to not be planning for this future.  

[datacoup]

We haven't blogged in a while. Every startup has a blogging plan until it gets punched in the face!

There's been no shortage of stories or articles written about the broader theme of personal data (just check out our twitter account timeline). The specifics range from monetization, breach, misuse, value and more. Times in the personal data space are getting more, not less, exciting.

As it relates to your friends here at Datacoup, maybe we can inject some anecdotal proof points into the conversation.

A) With no marketing, we've proven that there are many people out there willing to 'sell' their data, provided they understand the transaction in a clear manner.

B) We've done ZERO marketing, so there are likely many more people willing to transparently trade their data for economic benefit.

C) Consumers of data (Data purchasers and buyers) are starved for a better data product.

D) Potential partners (retail, banks, ins co's, carriers to name a few) are nervous about ceding to the individual a lot more control over the individual's data.

So where do we go from here?

Proof, from our experiment to date, necessitates that we take things a step further. It's one thing to come to a website, deposit data, get paid some type of annuity stream for it and then move on with your life. It's another thing to be traveling around (physically or online) with your data at the ready. Ready to be deployed and leveraged in a way that benefits you. This is our next step.

We are working on some interesting technology that will link data to a transaction. We can't give away too much, but imagine, for example, that you had all of your data stored in your browser. The browser talks to the website and knows when a purchase was made, or even better that someone is in the middle of the ecomm checkout process. This prompts a reactive event to occur.. say, a release of certain data permissioned by the user. In return for dispensing with data, the individual receives some tangible economic benefit. That would be cool.

This is just one example. The broader aim is to provide true agency for an individual to leverage their data. It's hard for any of us to do that now. It takes tools, technology, oftentimes aggregation (to make the data worthwhile for a vendor) and some other exogenous factors. But know that we are fighting the good fight and striving to make our data work for us.

Stay on the lookout for some changes as we grow and mature past our infancy. We are just entering our toddler stage and we have big plans for our next steps.

[datacoup]

Tom LaForge, Global Director, Human & Cultural Insights at The Coca-Cola Company Data utopia 

Tom LaForge, Global Director, Human & Cultural Insights at the Coca-Cola co. gives us his Data utopia scenario. How does it look? Who's in control? Who benefits? 

You can check out Tom's video bio here

[datacoup]

Leslie A. Saxon, M.D. – Chief, Cardiovascular Medicine / Keck School of Medicine of USC

Sensors and Data: The road to better health care Dr. Leslie A. Saxon of the Keck School of Medicine of USC, talks about the evolution of healthcare and its implications for all of us. With smartphones, EMR's and sensors/data, we are on the road to better virtual care, which will free up brick and mortar locations for the needy.  Click here to see Dr. Saxon's video bio 

[datacoup]

Peter Vander Auwera, Co-Founder of innotribe 

Peter Vander Auwera talks about ways to rethink privacy 

Peter Vander Auwera is Co-Founder of Innotribe, the innovation initiative of SWIFT, the world’s largest non-profit financially focused trade organization.  He is a recognized thought leader in the fields of innovation, digital and emerging technology, and finance. Surveillance is invasive enough, but its even worse when you don't know who and how someone is watching over your shoulder. 

You can check out Peter's full bio here

[datacoup]

William Hoffman, Heads World Economic Forum’s initiatives on Data-Driven Development 

Key Themes from World Economic Forum events, focused on personal data

Bill Hoffman from world Economic Forum discusses key themes gleaned from a number of meetings and forums that will drive future questions about personal data. How is data originated? How is data used? Will consumers be aware of data generation and tracking? 

Check out Bill's bio here.

[datacoup]

Tom LaForge, Global Director, Human & Cultural Insights at The Coca-Cola Company

On consumers "controlling" their own data. 

Tom LaForge, Global Director, Human & Cultural Insights at the Coca-Cola co. talks about consumers controlling their own data. For the most part, the value of personal data is still unknown/unproven, and consumers don't yet have the tools to arm themselves with their data and inevitably leverage their data for their benefit. 

You can check out Tom's video bio here

[datacoup]

Leslie A. Saxon, M.D. – Chief, Cardiovascular Medicine / Keck School of Medicine of USC

Health data portability

Dr. Leslie A. Saxon talks about both the risks and benefits of health data portability and liquidity. While data breach is a risk however you slice it, in a networked world in which the Consumer controls the import and export of data, there are greater opportunities at combating disease and illness across aggregated data-sets. 

Click here to see Leslie Saxon's bio video 

[datacoup]

What do you look like?

Datacoup opened up to the public a couple months ago, and we've been heads down since. We are proud of all the people who supported us, joined our platform and are getting paid for their data. 

During the holiday, we had a brief moment to pick our heads up and take stock of the composition of our user-base. Here are some basic stats to chew on (assuming you are not stuffed from Thanksgiving).

Not surprisingly, the most well-represented age bucket is 25-34. Somewhat surprisingly, 1/4 of the user-base is 35+. We figured that it would be difficult to initially attract people who did not "grow up" with the internet. 

Let's see about gender...

Ope! I'm not sure what conclusions to make here. Perhaps you all can start a conversation in the comment section and we can get to the bottom of this...

To mash up the last two graphs, here's a gender breakdown of the age buckets. 

Relatively comparable %'s across the age buckets. 

The graph below shows bucketed %'s of users by number of accounts connected (with a minimum of at least 1 account). This is a very telling graph. For people who are comfortable connecting at least 1 account, the proclivity is to connect many more. The average data seller has connected ~5 accounts. Maybe we are misreading this, but I think our transparency and our willingness to pay for data have engendered trust amongst the user-base.

Now let's take a look at the social accounts that people are connecting.

Hmmm... A curious graph. On the one hand, Twitter, Google, Linkedin and Facebook are the most ubiquitous social accounts, so most people coming on board to sell data will be members of those platforms. On the other hand, studies have shown that people perceive data from these platforms to be sensitive, so you'd figure that people might be a little more guarded about connecting those accounts. However, because we are selling data in aggregated, anonymous form, we've created systemic comfort with connecting and ultimately selling data. Or, perhaps this can all be chalked up to conditioning; People have been conditioned to use Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin to log in to other platforms, so hitting the connect button is not far removed from a familiar daily internet practice. 

There are definitely more questions evoked by these graphs/stats, than there are conclusions to be drawn at this time. Hopefully we've aroused some questions in your minds about what types of people are willing to sell what types of data.

We plan to do more macro level analysis on the data and share as many interesting insights as possible. 

[datacoup]

Matt Hogan, Co-Founder/CEO Datacoup

Why should we care about our data? 

Datacoup CEO, Matt Hogan, talks about why personal data should matter to the individual. Is it just about the money, or is there more we can be doing with our data? What are things that you, the reader, can do with your data? 

You Can check out Matt's Utopian Data scenario here

[datacoup]

Maneesh Juneja, Digital Health Futurist

Should we get paid for our Health Data?

Digital Health Futurist, Maneesh Juneja, thinks we should be getting paid for our health data. If we are willing to part with our health data, it should come at a cost to those who wish to use it. 

You can check out Maneesh’s Utopian and Dystopian Scenarios for 2016 here.

[datacoup]

William Hoffman, Heads World Economic Forum’s initiatives on Data-Driven Development 

Why manage your personal data? 

Bill Hoffman, from World Economic Forum, talks about why we should manage our own data. "Who's got your data, where is it, and what are they doing with it?". Good questions, Bill! 

You can check out WiIlliam’s full bio here, and his video intro here.

[datacoup]

Reki Hattori, Datacoup Co-Founder/Lead Engineer

Why did I join Datacoup

Reki Hattori, Lead Engineer talks about a big opportunity staring him in the face. The team and the passion got him over the edge. 

You can check out Reki's utopian data scenario for 2016 here

[datacoup]

Tom LaForge, Global Director, Human & Cultural Insights at The Coca-Cola Company

Are consumers aware of the data trail they are leaving behind? 

Tom LaForge, Global Director, Human & Cultural Insights at the Coca-Cola co. talks about the awareness levels of consumers in and around their personal data. Has complacency set in? 

 You can check out Tom’s video bio here. 

[datacoup]

Leslie A. Saxon, M.D. – Chief, Cardiovascular Medicine / Keck School of Medicine of USC

Privacy Issues with digital Health products

Dr. Leslie A. Saxon of the Keck School of Medicine of USC, talks about de-identifying data that is created on digital health platforms. The value of aggregated data is seminal to solving major health problems and disease, but equally important is maintaining a data infrastructure that respects privacy.

 Click here to see Leslie Saxon’s Bio Video.