Idk how much this is dystopian. Once your data is explicitly your property, we have a much better dialog about data brokers. Imagine the class action lawsuits against data breaches.

Interesting… People who don’t have any idea about privacy violations and the risk of selling their personal data are just gonna sell it for money.

Putting aside the dystopian angle for a minute, if you knew your data is valuable, would it change your behavior? e.g. if you behaved exactly the same as the median, would your data be valuable to advertisers? They gain no new info from you. Would you behave erratically just to make your data more valuable?

This kind of makes the theft of personal data even more insidious, IMO. Your data is only valuable if you forgot you’re being watched.

Next up: souls as property.

Satan: “I got a good deal on this one… only needed 500 dollars!”

“Do you want to pay off that student loan? How about getting your kid into private school? Well, YOU can make money money money! And the best part is, you have another kidney! Call 1-800-SLAVERY to schedule an appointment!”