Hi members,
Issues of privacy and data security have become commonplace in the news, but it may be hard to keep up with each breach and shocking revelation about what is known about us.
Enter Quartz reporter Olivia Goldhill and her field guide on the data boom. The amount of information we share—knowingly and unknowingly—is expanding at a geometric rate, and with it, an entire new industry designed to harvest, analyze, and sell our information to the highest bidder. As Olivia writes in her state of play memo:
Smartphones and the internet have opened up an abundance of data on every individual, which companies vie to harvest and merge. And those who control this data have massive power and insight. Data has been used to target women in abortion clinics, to profile voters based on information purchased from a parenting advice website, and to identify when teenagers are feeling “worthless,” so as to better sell to them.
Collecting and selling data is a massive gold rush. The international data market was valued at $20.6 billion at the end of 2018, with the US market making up $12.3 billion of that share, followed by the UK and China markets, both at $2.4 billion. The players in this new economy are quietly infiltrating and affecting every aspect of our lives.
We’ll have more this week on the world of big data including how fake news on WhatsApp affected the Brazilian election, the wellness apps that share your data, and much more.
Video: What’s your company’s mission?
We also have a new series of videos to share with you. In the first of a five-part members-only series, Brandless co-founder Tina Sharkey explains how imbuing your company with a sense of mission starts with answering three key questions: What problems are you trying to solve? What communities are you trying to attract? And what is the larger thing you’re trying to do in the world? In other videos in this series, Sharkey addresses how to hire to fulfill your mission, how to win employee and consumer buy-in; and how to extend your mission beyond your office walls.
Conference calls: Carbon-neutral oil and big data
Join us on Thursday July 11, at 1pm EDT/6pm BST to talk with Quartz reporter Akshat Rathi about his profile of Vicki Hollub and her quest to turn Occidental Petroleum into a carbon-neutral oil company.
And on Friday, July 12, Olivia Goldhill will be on the call to discuss this week’s field guide. Stay tuned for timing details.
For both calls, we’ll be here. Come by and ask us questions! If you’d rather listen in on your phone, call 866 226 4650 in the US or 800 014 8469 in the UK. In both cases, the meeting ID is 722 994 440.
And we’d love to hear what you’re enjoying about Quartz membership! Email us at members@qz.com and tell us what’s working, what’s not, and what you’d like to see more of (field guides, profiles, videos—you name it).
Here’s to a rewarding week,
Sam Grobart
membership editor