A Startup Wants To Pay You To Share Your Data For Advertising

(R)Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang (through his AME Cloud Ventures) contributed to $6 million in seed funding in November for startup Caden, which plans to pay users to share their personal data -- including what they buy or watch on mobile apps. The Wall Street Journal reports:The startup, Caden Inc., operates an app by the same name that helps users download their data from apps and servicesa"whether thata(TM)s Amazon.com Inc. or Airbnb Inc. a"into a personal aoevault.a Users who consent to share that data for advertising purposes can earn a cut of the revenue that the app generates from it. They also can access personal analytics based on that data.... Caden, which has been testing with a limited group of users, plans to begin a public beta test of 10,000 users early next year.... One option in the public beta test will anonymize and pool the data before sharing it with outside parties in exchange for $5 to $20 a month, according to Caden founder and Chief Executive John Roa. The amount of compensation will be determined by a aoedata scorea reflecting factors such as whether consumers answer demographic survey questions and which apps and servicesa(TM) data consumers are sharing. Consumers will eventually be given the option to share more specific information for more tailored advertising. A marketer could then form audience segments and tailor their ad targeting and messaging to those groups. For instance, a user could consent to sharing his ride-share history so advertisers could create segments of people who ride a certain amount. That would eventually pay consumers up to $50 a month, Caden said. A third option would let advertisers take a direct action based on the data that Caden understands about a specific user. If a consumer were part of a department storea(TM)s loyalty program, for example, the store might reward her for sharing her individual Amazon shopping history and use it to provide more personalized offers.That could generate thousands of dollars a year for participating users, the company said. Caden also hopes that the data it can aggregate will be compelling for consumers. Users could search for restaurants theya(TM)ve eaten at in a certain city, for instance, or how much they spent in certain categories across different apps, executives said. aoeIta(TM)s like Spotify Wrapped for your whole life,a said Amarachi Miller, Cadena(TM)s head of product, referring to the streaming music servicea(TM)s year-end distillation of each usera(TM)s listening.... Caden said it will initially sell only anonymized and aggregated data that doesna(TM)t tie back to individuals. As it starts to let brands do more personal promotions for users, it said it will let users see which brands and partners ita(TM)s working with, and will let users control which brands can access their information. The digital ad industry has been seeking new marketing-guiding data, the article points out, especially since Apple began require apps to ask for permission before tracking users. Thanks to Slashdot reader guest reader for sharing the article.

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