What’s the most valuable commodity in the world? Grain, coffee, precious metals? No. Data are now the world’s single most valuable commodity. A commodity, as you know, is something that is bought and sold. That means data are being bought and sold. To be more specific, your data are being bought and sold.
China recently got a taste of its own medicine. A country synonymous with hacking found itself hacked. In the first week of July, a hacker stole the data of a billion Chinese citizens and offered to sell it all for a cool $200,000. Everything has its price, including data. Of course, the Chinese people aren’t the only ones who need to worry about their data being misused and abused.
In the United States, according to Bennett Cyphers, a technologist who focuses on consumer privacy and state legislation, data brokers have formed an unholy alliance with the country’s military, intelligence communities, and law enforcement agencies. This immense, highly secretive partnership was established for one reason and one reason only—to surveil the actions and activities of U.S. citizens.
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