We Shouldn’t Have to Give Away Our Identity to Use the Internet

[Commentary] Facebook, Google and a host of other companies have undoubtedly changed the way we interact with the Internet. This has given us the luxury of enjoying tons of free Web and mobile services. However, we need to remember that if we aren’t buying something from a site or app, we (or our personal data) are likely the product being sold. At the end of the day, almost no one can truly control the use of their own identity information — in exchange for these “free” services, our identities are being traded without us being a part of the value chain. The economies of the Internet have long been made viable by digital advertising enabling most free services to indeed be free. Most news sites, social networks and other online applications are ostensibly free to access, because their revenue comes from marketing partners, not consumers. This is in obvious contrast to e-commerce properties, which realize revenue directly from consumers and hence, rarely rely on advertising.

[Sivaramakrishnan is the founder and CEO of Drawbridge, the leading programmatic cross-device technology company, and the first-and-foremost solution for cutting-edge cross-screen marketing strategies for Fortune 500 brands.]