root.net - myware for a data-hungry world
Consider Seth Goldstein’s new business venture called Root Markets for a moment. CNN Money has this article this article outlining the new service.
This new venture aims to allow users to store large amounts of their personal, marketable data to be used for their own enrichment. The same entities will be interested in that data, only now the user would be empowered to aggregate the information in a more comprehensive fashion, and to enter into only those agreements they want to in order to share that data only when sufficiently motivated to do so.
Most users are confused by cookie-management strategies, in fact don’t even understand what cookies are and what a sensible strategy would be and how to implement such a strategy. Most computer users are intimidated by the perceived threat of spyware. Most web users have no idea what information is being stored where by whom. All that makes computer users anxious, and for good reason.
Which websites I visit, how long I stay at each, which cookies I allow, what data I store at each place. This is the bundle I’m offering in advance to any interested parties - in exchange for a new Macbook Pro when they ship next month. Any takers? Check it out here: http://root.net I’ll be interested to find out how many early adopters actually fabricate the data by hacking the system.
