Question

Should you be bought and sold or not....

a). What constraints should there be on the gathering of information on users? With or without their permission? If with their permission, opt-in or opt-opt? b). How about exchanging the information that has been gathered? Any constraints on the use of that data?

Answer 1

In general, data (information) has value to it. Data is money, at least in this data or digital world, or information age. Also, data is security and even safety. Losing which, one would lose all these factors.

No, we should not be bought and sold. No one would want to be bought, sold, be used, and the worst-case scenario- be misused, his information or any other asset of the person, unless the individual has voluntarily, willing, and explicitly given permission, and has approved of this act. Everything in this world be it, living thing or a non-living thing, has a value of its own, as they are considered resources. Hence, no one has any right to buy, sell, use, or misuse anything without the owner of that particular "thing" approving it.

Customers or users feel they are being used and misused and are fooled around when someone uses their information for the information gatherer's monetary gains or on the flip side, cause damage to the users. This should not happen and users and everyone should not let this happen.

a) What constraints should there be on the gathering of information on users?
The constraints on the gathering of information on users should be at the micro-level, such as micro-managed or micro-monitored. The constraints should be at every level. The users should make their data available or should give to requestors as little as possible (least privileged access).
There should be all possible flexibility of the users' information on sharing, publishing, monitoring, tracking, recording, logging, saving, storing, transmitting, etc. Users should have complete control over each one of their information be it, their personal, private, professional, or social information or data based on the above-mentioned factors.

There should be proper policies, processes, procedures, laws, terms, conditions, disclaimers, advice, agreements on how the users' information is to gathered and used.

With or without their permission?
There should definitely be constraints on the gathering of information on users "only" with permission. Otherwise, no one has any rights to collect users' information as this would compromise their information, privacy, anonymity, freedom, liberty, lack of safety, security, confidentiality, integrity, availability, and even accessibility to their own information.

If with their permission, opt-in or opt-out?
Yes, all users should be given options of opting-in or opting-out from giving their consent and permission to gather their information.

b) How about exchanging the information that has been gathered?
Again, exchanging the users' information that has been gathered should be carried out only after the users' consent, permission, and approval. Users' should be made well aware of, to who their information is shared and exchanged with, why, what the consequences are, and every little to the biggest details possible.

Any constraints on the use of that data?
The main and the only constraint on the use of that users' data is, it should not be misused (at least) in any way if not the users are not benefitted in any way, for any reason, and to any extent causing trouble and harm to the users bringing down their security, safety, privacy, anonymity, confidentiality, integrity, availability, accessibility, any collateral damages, loss (financial, reputation, property, business, and others), should not hurt (physically and mentally) them, and should not cause death.

In case, anyone is using users' data, users should be given an appropriate amount of profits or money, credibility, credits, the authenticity of the information ownership or its creator, praise, recognition, awards, perks, and any rewards. This is because if someone thinks the users' data is helpful and can be used to make profit out of it in any way, to any extent, and for any reason, the users should be given an appropriate share of the profit, as the users earn it, as they have invested their information as money in the business.