Privacy Platform: Pay to Pry—Will a Price Tag Disincentivise Excessive Data Use?

We are all little cash cows. Our personal data are worth a lot of money for companies harvesting and selling our data, for example to advertising companies. We are told that the services provided by social networks and search engines are free, but they are not: we pay by giving our personal data. Is monetising personal data the solution for excessive data use? Will taxation on the basis of data use influence the behaviour of companies, just as taxation is used for example to reduce consumption or pollution? "Pay to pry", in analogy to "the pollutor pays"? Will users make different choices if they get a certain monetary value for giving their data? This Privacy Platform explores the possibility of monetising data as solution for the current data use practices by companies.