As we prepare for a vigorous debate on protecting consumers and citizens, it’s useful to reflect how online marketing companies view the process. This excerpt from a Politico story last month notes, that:
Representatives from Google and Microsoft agreed it is the companies’ jobs to make sure consumers can trust them with personal information by giving them more control over how that data is shared. But regulation is a slippery slope. “Our business model is to monetize human attention,†said Marc Davis of Microsoft’s Online Services Division. “Regulation does potentially threaten the value of that.†Added Google’s Betsy Masiello: “Those business models also rely entirely on user trust.†They agreed there’s no legal clarity over who owns what data, and whether online information is owned by the person who entered it online or the company who runs the platform that stores it. “We’ve created this new business class without any clarity,†Davis said.
