Offshore
Photo
EndGame Macro
When Your Data Becomes a Product, Your Privacy Becomes a Luxury
The entire piece is built on the central claim that data isn’t free, and we’re already selling it whether we realize it or not. Veldkamp argues that every time we buy something, download an app, or even just walk around with our phone, we generate a stream of information firms value and they pay us for it by lowering prices or offering convenience. That, she says, is the hidden bargain of the digital economy.
She describes how companies push discounts not out of kindness, but because more transactions mean more data. Monthly subscriptions, free apps, and artificially cheap goods are designed to keep the data flowing.
But the key insight is bundling…we think we’re buying a product, but we’re unknowingly selling our data at the same time and because the data price is hidden, we have no idea whether we’re being fairly compensated.
Her solution is to unbundle the two: firms should post two prices…one if you allow your transaction data to be used, one if you don’t. In theory, that transparency would turn us from passive data sources into active data suppliers who can judge what their information is worth.
And to reinforce it, she outlines five different ways economists can measure what data is worth: market prices, revenue impact, complementary inputs, behavioral correlation, and cost accounting.
On paper, it’s a call to give consumers visibility and policymakers tools to quantify a hidden asset class.
Where the Control Risks Hide
This all sounds empowering, you get to see the price of your data! but scratch the surface and it starts looking like a blueprint for legitimizing and expanding the data extraction system under the banner of transparency.
If privacy becomes a line item ($9.99 with data, $15.99 without), firms will simply price the private option so high that most people especially lower income consumers choose to give up their data. That isn’t empowerment; it’s economic coercion dressed up as market choice.
Her framework also assumes people have time, bandwidth, and expertise to evaluate the value of their data. They don’t. Even with unbundling, the default will be convenience, click accept and move on. That’s not a free market; that’s behavioral capture.
And she never addresses the fact that data isn’t just an individual asset. It’s relational. One person’s decision to sell their data exposes patterns about their friends, family, and community. Markets are terrible at pricing externalities like that.
Finally, the call to move data from intuition to quantification sounds neutral, but quantification tends to lead to formalization and formalization leads to regulation, enforcement, and eventually surveillance justified as measurement.
My Read
She’s right about the diagnosis that we are constantly selling our data without knowing the price, and companies do design environments where the real transaction is invisible. The hidden bargain framing is one of the clearest explanations I’ve seen.
But the proposed fix, unbundling doesn’t meaningfully shift power. It just reframes the same extraction in a way that satisfies economists’ need for a price without changing the underlying asymmetry.
If anything, formal pricing of data risks making exploitation look legitimate.
The real solution isn’t cleaner menus or dual price tags. Its limits with less collection, narrower rights, strict purpose constraints, deletion guarantees, and penalties for misuse. Transparency is helpful, but it won’t protect people who are structurally forced to trade privacy for affordability.
So yes, quantify it but don’t confuse a price with control. A price is just the number that tells you what you’ve already lost.
Are we ready for a data-driven future? From satellites to smartwatches, how we measure economies is being transformed. December's F&D explores the data revolution, the AI resource race, and what it means for growth and transparency. [...]
When Your Data Becomes a Product, Your Privacy Becomes a Luxury
The entire piece is built on the central claim that data isn’t free, and we’re already selling it whether we realize it or not. Veldkamp argues that every time we buy something, download an app, or even just walk around with our phone, we generate a stream of information firms value and they pay us for it by lowering prices or offering convenience. That, she says, is the hidden bargain of the digital economy.
She describes how companies push discounts not out of kindness, but because more transactions mean more data. Monthly subscriptions, free apps, and artificially cheap goods are designed to keep the data flowing.
But the key insight is bundling…we think we’re buying a product, but we’re unknowingly selling our data at the same time and because the data price is hidden, we have no idea whether we’re being fairly compensated.
Her solution is to unbundle the two: firms should post two prices…one if you allow your transaction data to be used, one if you don’t. In theory, that transparency would turn us from passive data sources into active data suppliers who can judge what their information is worth.
And to reinforce it, she outlines five different ways economists can measure what data is worth: market prices, revenue impact, complementary inputs, behavioral correlation, and cost accounting.
On paper, it’s a call to give consumers visibility and policymakers tools to quantify a hidden asset class.
Where the Control Risks Hide
This all sounds empowering, you get to see the price of your data! but scratch the surface and it starts looking like a blueprint for legitimizing and expanding the data extraction system under the banner of transparency.
If privacy becomes a line item ($9.99 with data, $15.99 without), firms will simply price the private option so high that most people especially lower income consumers choose to give up their data. That isn’t empowerment; it’s economic coercion dressed up as market choice.
Her framework also assumes people have time, bandwidth, and expertise to evaluate the value of their data. They don’t. Even with unbundling, the default will be convenience, click accept and move on. That’s not a free market; that’s behavioral capture.
And she never addresses the fact that data isn’t just an individual asset. It’s relational. One person’s decision to sell their data exposes patterns about their friends, family, and community. Markets are terrible at pricing externalities like that.
Finally, the call to move data from intuition to quantification sounds neutral, but quantification tends to lead to formalization and formalization leads to regulation, enforcement, and eventually surveillance justified as measurement.
My Read
She’s right about the diagnosis that we are constantly selling our data without knowing the price, and companies do design environments where the real transaction is invisible. The hidden bargain framing is one of the clearest explanations I’ve seen.
But the proposed fix, unbundling doesn’t meaningfully shift power. It just reframes the same extraction in a way that satisfies economists’ need for a price without changing the underlying asymmetry.
If anything, formal pricing of data risks making exploitation look legitimate.
The real solution isn’t cleaner menus or dual price tags. Its limits with less collection, narrower rights, strict purpose constraints, deletion guarantees, and penalties for misuse. Transparency is helpful, but it won’t protect people who are structurally forced to trade privacy for affordability.
So yes, quantify it but don’t confuse a price with control. A price is just the number that tells you what you’ve already lost.
Are we ready for a data-driven future? From satellites to smartwatches, how we measure economies is being transformed. December's F&D explores the data revolution, the AI resource race, and what it means for growth and transparency. [...]
Offshore
EndGame Macro When Your Data Becomes a Product, Your Privacy Becomes a Luxury The entire piece is built on the central claim that data isn’t free, and we’re already selling it whether we realize it or not. Veldkamp argues that every time we buy something…
Out now: https://t.co/q5XfijrwHJ https://t.co/HzyExpYlRG - IMF tweet
Offshore
Photo
Quiver Quantitative
BREAKING: Representative Tim Moore just filed new stock trades.
Something caught our eye.
Moore is buying up massive amounts of stock in a company called Hyster-Yale, $HY.
He is the only politician we have ever seen trade this stock. https://t.co/xXvU5KId6O
tweet
BREAKING: Representative Tim Moore just filed new stock trades.
Something caught our eye.
Moore is buying up massive amounts of stock in a company called Hyster-Yale, $HY.
He is the only politician we have ever seen trade this stock. https://t.co/xXvU5KId6O
tweet
Offshore
Photo
memenodes
apple music users watching everyone talk about their spotify wrapped https://t.co/17btxEGuFW
tweet
apple music users watching everyone talk about their spotify wrapped https://t.co/17btxEGuFW
tweet
Offshore
Video
memenodes
The book will help you chill out and get rid of the chaos in your head https://t.co/gKNqsBvKrO
tweet
The book will help you chill out and get rid of the chaos in your head https://t.co/gKNqsBvKrO
tweet
Offshore
Photo
Fiscal.ai
Dollar Tree has now delivered 17 consecutive quarters of positive comp store sales growth.
Shares of the discount retailer are now up 62.5% since announcing the sale of the Family Dollar banner in March 2025.
$DLTR https://t.co/Oh0JW50NvF
tweet
Dollar Tree has now delivered 17 consecutive quarters of positive comp store sales growth.
Shares of the discount retailer are now up 62.5% since announcing the sale of the Family Dollar banner in March 2025.
$DLTR https://t.co/Oh0JW50NvF
tweet