According to a report by the Polish Economics Institute, the value of users’ data of Polish Google and Facebook exceeded PLN 6 billion in 2020. 87% of survey participants say that technology companies know too much, and 84% believe that their activities should be subject to greater scrutiny. Poles are also willing to pay to limit access to their data.

According to the report of the Polish Economic Institute “How much is our data worth?”, the value of Polish users’ data for Google in 2020 was PLN 4.025 billion and for Facebook PLN 2.196 billion.

The report emphasizes that Poles are willing to pay for limiting access to their data: PLN 17 per month to stop Facebook from having access to data aggregated on the platform and from other sources, and PLN 14 per month to stop Google from having access to their data, including activity on other websites.

The report shows that Poles are reluctant to allow digital platforms to use their data on a large scale. In the current situation when digital platforms have access to all personal data and display personalized ads, the average user would expect monetary compensation. 63% of the interviewed Internet users agree with banning the display of advertisements based on the data of private persons.

At the same time, only 38% of respondents are ready to pay for better privacy protection for the websites they use. According to analysts, this may be related to the distrust of these companies – 76% do not believe that the paid version of Facebook would better protect their rights. In the case of Google, it is 73% that are skeptical.

Analysts noted that in the third quarter of 2021, platforms had 42% of share in the top 10 companies with the highest stock exchange valuation in the world, and 10 years earlier this share was zero. In the case of Facebook, advertising revenue is 98% of the company’s revenues ($ 84 billion globally in 2020), and in the case of Google, the share of advertising revenues in the company’s revenues is 80% – about $ 147 billion.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński