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How Much Is Your Personal Data Worth?

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In a world where big data reigns supreme, sources of highly detailed and granular information can be very valuable to companies.

But what if that information is about you?

The Price of Personal Data

The following infographic from MBA@UNC looks at the business of data brokers, how they get their data, and what they sell it for.

It also puts a price tag on what users are willing to “pay” to not have their data collected.

How Much Is Your Personal Data Worth?

It’s often said that if you are not paying for something, it should be known that you are the product.

In other words, companies may offer a free service to you in exchange for your personal information. Then, that data is used to sell targeted ads, or is re-sold for profit.

Buying and Selling Personal Data

Here are some examples of how companies may do this:

  • Google and Facebook dominate the digital advertising market by using your data to allow marketers better targeting options. Did you know you can download a copy of your Facebook data, including every ad you ever clicked on?
  • Loyalty cards also work because of personal data – they are free to the user, but help businesses collect data on you and your spending habits.
  • Data from your mobile phones (such as geo-location) can be resold by your telecommunications company to other groups.

Once you hand your data over, it can be mined or re-sold, ending up in large databases of personal data.

Companies such as Axciom then curate data from multiple sources to come up with “more than 1,000 customer traits and basic information including location, age and household details”, as well as “more than 3,500 specific behavioral insights, such as propensity to make a purchase”.

Data brokers make money by selling this data compiled in comprehensive lists or databases to marketers, non-profits, and fundraisers. The data isn’t on you personally, but aggregated into some type of a typical buying profile such as “Affluent males interested in technology products”.

It then comes full circle, as your data is used by businesses or non-profits to target people just like you for future purchases.

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Charted: The Jobs Most Impacted by AI

We visualized the results of an analysis by the World Economic Forum, which uncovered the jobs most impacted by AI.

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Charted: The Jobs Most Impacted by AI

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Large language models (LLMs) and other generative AI tools haven’t been around for very long, but they’re expected to have far-reaching impacts on the way people do their jobs. With this in mind, researchers have already begun studying the potential impacts of this transformative technology.

In this graphic, we’ve visualized the results of a World Economic Forum report, which estimated how different job departments will be exposed to AI disruption.

Data and Methodology

To identify the job departments most impacted by AI, researchers assessed over 19,000 occupational tasks (e.g. reading documents) to determine if they relied on language. If a task was deemed language-based, it was then determined how much human involvement was needed to complete that task.

With this analysis, researchers were then able to estimate how AI would impact different occupational groups.

DepartmentLarge impact (%)Small impact (%)No impact (%)
IT73261
Finance70219
Customer Sales671617
Operations651817
HR57412
Marketing56413
Legal46504
Supply Chain431839

In our graphic, large impact refers to tasks that will be fully automated or significantly altered by AI technologies. Small impact refers to tasks that have a lesser potential for disruption.

Where AI will make the biggest impact

Jobs in information technology (IT) and finance have the highest share of tasks expected to be largely impacted by AI.

Within IT, tasks that are expected to be automated include software quality assurance and customer support. On the finance side, researchers believe that AI could be significantly useful for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing.

Still interested in AI? Check out this graphic which ranked the most commonly used AI tools in 2023.

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