Why Data Privacy is More Important Than Ever
With so many crises hitting at once, we’re reimagining our norms in every way. We’ve seen our freedoms threatened by forces from within our own borders. We’re seeing an active response to racial injustice. We are just beginning to see a plague year change the way we work, play and live. At the core of all of these crises, we are also seeing how personal data gathered online has been used to manipulate people into losing their connection with many basic truths in our world.
This is why we see Data Privacy as a vital issue among the challenges our country faces. If we can help people take back control of their data, we can empower them to avoid the toxic manipulation by groups that would act against our very basic human needs. While many of the tools that Big Tech uses to track and compile information about people were created so they could more effectively sell ads, these companies never limited who has access to these powerhouse systems.
In the wake of the 2016 Presidential Election, we heard about the power of these tools to effectively predict behavior and saw how foreign powers used them. People were mad, but maybe not mad enough — perhaps because a lot of the damage had already been done. So many of us were firmly ensconced in an echo chamber of our friends and influencers on social media platforms who agreed with us. The naysayers had been casually unfollowed or completely removed via the social media algorithms whose primary goal was keeping us “on a platform.”
The problem is: If all Big Tech cares about is keeping people engaged so they can view more ads and companies keep paying for these ads, where is the motivation to limit the power of these manipulation machines? Do companies really want to be a part of that?
More Consumer Control, More Inclusive Capitalism
We know there is a better way and that modern companies are ready for a change. As the pandemic further widened income inequality, companies are being called upon to consider more than just shareholders when making decisions about how they run their businesses. The richest 500 people on the planet added $1.8 trillion to their wealth in 2020, while millions were forced into unemployment and food insecurity. Big Tech moguls were among the biggest recipients of windfall so it’s a modest proposal to consider other stakeholders like customers and the world as a whole.
This is why I founded NEON ID. I believe people have a right to make money from their data without a violation of their privacy. NEON ID is built around a philosophy that us, the people, and our privacy, come first. Paramount. We the people. So only then, behind an engagingly colorful personality privacy wall, companies can market to personas based on people, not the actual people themselves and be even more effective through consent and understanding. The multi-billion dollar market in data should have more beneficiaries than just Big Tech and the data brokers. The people deserve their fair cut from their data and that’s why NEON ID offers people 80% of the money that advertisers pay to reach them. The other 20% goes to our processing costs to manage and host the platform.
Consent First For Humane Technology
NEON ID is a movement, a form of activism, a way to provide online consumer protection from, well, everyone else. Our goal is to provide a technology solution that helps people and companies alike- a win-win, mutually beneficial ecosystem that leads with consent. But ultimately, a place for us, the people, to call home on the Internet.
The EU and the state of California established GDPR and CCPA/CPRA, respectively, in recent years. These laws set up a consumer’s identity as their own property and puts the onus on companies to not abuse data they gather once they gain consent from a user. This has led to confusing, text-filled pop-ups that people are more likely to just click through, much as most people did with the License Agreements on every product they use. This helps no one.
NEON ID knows that expecting people to manage all their data and consent to companies is not realistic. That’s why our Color Fingerprint becomes a shield that makes data privacy a turnkey solution. When users increase the value of their data with our HEXACO-based personality analysis, it creates a private key for their information and also enables companies to connect with them more effectively without knowing their personal identity. Our matching here is world-class since our algorithms were built by Dr. Galen Buckwalter, the founding scientist at eHarmony and the one responsible for 4% of marriages in the United States.
Companies use NEON ID to market to cohorts selected based on personality matching their brands to consumers. Most importantly, consumers get the chance to see which brands would like to market to them and give consent before any ad shows up. This is win-win for both parties since brands don’t waste ad dollars on people who don’t want to see their ads and consumers only see things that intrigue them.
We’re not asking consumers to simply trust that we’ll determine good brands for them. They have the full power to either open the door to see advertisements or not. When ads become available in the person’s browser or within NEON ID’s Daily Vibe, they are obscured until the person confirms they want to see the ad. Consumers are in complete control with NEON ID. Businesses finally get to engage directly with consumers for a true impression instead of having to reach them 12 times for a potential impression. People are paid in real-time while companies get better data, a reputation boost and a sense of reciprocity from the consumers they paid for their time and attention.
Humane Technology Will Give Us Data Privacy
Some in the industry believe that when it comes to consumer data, the horse has left the barn. They figure most people signed on with Google and/or Facebook, so it’s over. Does this mean you’ve lost control of your data forever?
No, it doesn’t. Laws like GDPR and CCPA restrict how much these companies can do with your data. NEON ID is a Humane Technology solution that allows advertising to happen within the tenets of these laws. And NEON ID is a solution that offers a way for people to own valuable scientific personality data that does not yet exist in the online world. NEON ID is the chance to claim what is yours- it’s not game over for your data anymore. This is a second chance.
By promoting our Humane Technology Certification, we’re helping companies get off the ‘junk food diet’ of hostilely-acquired data they find on Big Tech platforms and interact with our ‘organic, fair trade’ data that has been happily given. Sure, they may have found a lot of quick-hit sales from using those platforms, but the sugar-high isn’t worth the eventual crash when consumers never come back.
We think of NEON ID as a healthy-eating alternative that empowers companies to build real relationships with consumers. That’s because the relationship begins with an open request for consent instead of creepy data tracking. This is what constitutes Humane Technology for us: People understand what they are getting and what they are providing without a forty-page legal document involved. Reciprocity. Respect. Privacy. For the people, by the people.
NEON ID is proud to be introducing its Humane Technology Certification this week as part of Data Privacy Day 2021. With a firm commitment to the privacy of the people through our Double-Blind technology, we look forward to partnering with individuals and companies that want to market to their prospective customers with a conscious effort to be respectful of the person and their privacy.
Sign up today to take your first step towards becoming a Certified Humane Technology Member and advertising effectively and humanely with NEON ID. Learn even more about NEON ID below:
