The new app, called Caden, could PAY users thousands of dollars a year to share their smartphone data with advertisers — the more detailed the information, the bigger the payout
- Caden wants to pay users for their smartphone data, with the potential for some users to earn hundreds or even thousands a year
- The app helps users download their data into a “vault”, this information is anonymized and then shared with brands that work with Caden
- Caden, which is supported by Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, among others, will conduct a public beta test for 10,000 users early next year
- “We believe that every digital citizen should be part of the data economy and be the one who can decide how their data is used,” the company says
A new company wants to pay users for their smartphone data — with the potential for some people to make thousands of dollars a year by sharing lots of specific information.
The app is called Caden and is endorsed by internet pioneer and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang. The app helps users download their data into a “vault” from other services and apps, be it Amazon or Yelp. Users who choose to share this data can then earn a portion of the revenue the app generates from it.
The digital advertising industry, already facing recessionary headwinds, is looking for new ways to monetize consumer data. Traditional methods are more difficult now, thanks in part to Apple’s privacy policy, introduced last year, which requires all apps to ask permission to track users – which many have declined.
Caden has been testing with a small number of users and, according to The Wall Street Journal, plans to conduct a public beta test with 10,000 users early next year. The company plans to offer users a wide range of ways to share their data.
A new company wants to pay users for their smartphone data — with the potential for some people to make thousands of dollars a year by sharing lots of specific information
“We believe that every digital citizen should be part of the data economy and be the one who can decide how their data is used and what they want in return,” the company explains on its website.
‘We are absolutely obsessed with privacy, so you can rest assured that every feature and product we offer protects privacy, period.’
One option is to pool and anonymize the data and share it with outside parties for $5 to $20 a month, Caden founder and chief executive John Roa told the Journal. Compensation is determined by a “data value” based on users’ responses to demographic survey questions and the services they use.
For example, a person might agree to share their carpooling history so advertisers can create segments of people who drive a certain amount — which can eventually pay consumers up to $50 a month, according to the Journal’s report.
Another option would allow advertisers to take direct action based on the data Caden collects from users. That would be more valuable to a range of different marketers, so it could generate thousands of dollars a year for participating users, the company explained.
Any app that succeeds in this space has to convince a broad mass of consumers that it can be trusted and that the overall experience has to be perfect.
“The consumer app has to be incredible. Not only the user experience, but the value the consumer receives has to be amazing,” Ullas Naik, founder and general partner at Streamlined Ventures, who led Caden’s new funding round, told the Journal.
Another option would allow advertisers to take direct action based on the data Caden collects from users. That would be more valuable to a range of different marketers, so it could generate thousands of dollars a year for participating users, the company explained
The company said it will allow users to see which brands it works with and allow them to control which brands can access their information – as it begins to do more personalized marketing to brands.
Caden would also allow users to limit or restrict advertisers by category or name, they told the Journal.
But one expert warned that apps like Caden won’t really take off until another big privacy change happens in the coming years: Google’s plan to end support for third-party tracking in its popular Chrome browser, which doesn’t come into effect until 2024 kicks. Until then, brands can still siphon off a lot of data about consumers without asking their permission.
“I think this is going to be a set of niche solutions, something for advertisers to experiment with and something for consumers to experiment with, but I don’t see them taking off,” Forrester Research analyst Stephanie Liu told the business newspaper.
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