未来当数据成为个人合法财产

Hernando de Soto, the Peruvian economist whose work centred on the informal economy and property rights, has much to contribute to the dialogue raging in the so-called developed world about privacy and data.

在所谓的发达世界，一场关于隐私和数据的对话正如火如荼地展开。主要研究非正式经济和财产权的秘鲁经济学家埃尔南多•德索托(Hernando de Soto)，可为这场对话贡献不少真知灼见。

Mr de Soto showed how enabling individuals to own property legally would drive economic prosperity. Many credit him with the surge of wealth creation happening in some parts of Latin America.

德索托阐释了，为何让个人拥有合法财产权能够推动经济繁荣。许多人认为，拉丁美洲一些地方财富创造大大加快就要归功于他。

Meanwhile, US technology platform companies and the European Union are engaged in an arms race around privacy. The issue is not whether my data are private. We lost that battle a long time ago. As Scott McNealy, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems said: “You have zero privacy . . . get over it.” The issue is over who owns my data and to whom the value accrues.

与此同时，美国科技平台企业和欧盟(EU)正围绕隐私较劲。问题不在于我的数据是否隐私。这场战斗我们早已打输。如太阳计算机系统公司(Sun Microsystems)联合创始人斯科特 •麦克尼利(Scott McNealy)所说：“你没有丝毫隐私……别纠结这个了。”问题在于谁拥有我的数据、这些数据的价值又属于谁。

Google’s use of my data drives their business model and their multibillion-dollar market capitalisation. We get no economic benefit for that beyond free search and online stalking. My bank account does not benefit from its success.

谷歌(Google)使用了我的数据，这推动其建立了商业模式，实现了巨额市值。除免费搜索和在线追踪之外，我们不从中获得任何经济利益。谷歌的成功不会让我的银行账户余额增加一分钱。

I long thought an entrepreneur would develop a business model to incentivise individuals for the use of their consumer data. I found one such entrepreneur,John Paleomylites, who was running BeatThatQuote, a UK price comparison site that my firm Ariadne Capital advised.

我早已设想过会有一位企业家，开发一种商业模式，激励个人允许别人使用自己的消费者数据。我曾发现过这样一位企业家，约翰•帕莱奥米利提斯(John Paleomylites)，他曾管理过一家英国比价网站BeatThatQuote，我的公司Ariadne Capital曾为这家网站提供过咨询。

BeatThatQuote was providing cash back deals and discounts. Despite having less than £500,000 of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, it was sold to Google in 2011 for £37.7m, having articulated its strategic value (or threat) to its acquirer. Who says Goliath does not get scared?

当时，BeatThatQuote提供返利和折扣。尽管这家网站的息税折旧和摊销前利润(EBITDA)还不到50万英镑，但在2011年，谷歌以3770万英镑的价格收购了它，因为它明明白白地展示了自己对谷歌的战略价值（或者说威胁）。谁说巨人歌利亚(Goliath)不会害怕？

The battle is no longer about incentivisation. If we believe that my data — whether related to my finances, telecoms, health, transportation or property — are my data, than their use surely must accrue value to me.

这场战斗已不再关乎激励机制。如果我们相信，我的数据——无论是关于我的财务、电信记录、健康情况、交通记录还是持有房产情况的数据——是属于我的，那么使用这些数据当然必须让我获益。

Re-enter Mr de Soto. He changed the world for Peruvian farmers by establishing property rights for them. What if data were established as legal assets for everyone?

再回到德索托。通过确立秘鲁农场主的财产权，他改变了这些人的命运（见上图）。如果数据被确认为每个人的合法财产，那会怎样？

Those of us who have had property rights have the ability to build other assets on top of our property assets. If you are still securing your basic needs at the bottom of thepyramid described by the American psychologist Abraham Maslow — a model that features an individual’s survival at the bottom and their self-actualisation at the apex of the pyramid — then you advance more slowly and with less certainty, if at all.

我们中已经拥有财产权的人，能够在我们的财产基础之上创建其他资产。美国心理学家亚伯拉罕•马斯洛(Abraham Maslow)提出了需求层次理论，该理论认为人的需求呈金字塔形状，处于金字塔最底层的是生存需求，金字塔顶端是自我实现需求。如果你仍在努力满足处于需求层次底层的基本需求，那么你的进步速度会更慢、并面临更大不确定性，甚至根本无法进步。

So if data are the new universal assets, instead of arguing about privacy, should we just argue about money?

因此，假如数据是为人们普遍享有的新资产，那么我们是否应该仅争论钱的问题，而别再争隐私不隐私？

If the starting point is “they are my data”, then there should be a corresponding accrual for their use in the financial accounts for any business whose model uses them. Data, and the cost of purchasing them, would become a “cost of sale” in transactions.

如果以“那是我的数据”为前提，那么任何企业，只要它们的商业模式用到这些数据，那么就应该为使用这些数据向我们支付相应的费用。数据，以及购买数据的成本，将成为一项“销售成本”。

If a large bank or telecoms group opened up its customer data to start-ups for applications using that data and then sold those applications on, a percentage of the revenue would have to accrue to those customers, or be netted against any other monies they paid in. The value of what is owed to any one individual would be 1/N where N is the size of the customer base used.

如果一家大型银行或电信公司向一些初创企业开发的应用开放自己的用户数据，供这些应用使用，并销售这些应用，那么就必须将所获收入的一部分交给那些用户，或者从用户缴纳的费用中扣除这部分金额。应付给每个用户个人的费用将为总收入的1/N，N为用户总数。

At each point in history where power has shifted towards the individual from a hierarchy, power is forcefully taken. There is a net social gain for the common man and woman if their data are valued. Prosperity will rip across society if we set up the right data architecture for business.

回顾历史，每次权力从特权集团转移到个人手中时，权力都被牢牢地抓住了。对普通民众来说，如果赋予他们的数据以价值，会为社会带来净收益。如果我们建立合适的数据商用结构，财富将迅速席卷社会各个阶层。

The non-technology traditional business — whether retailer, bank, transportation company — has an ace to play. By engaging with entrepreneurs and embracing consumer data as a legal asset of the individual, the incumbents in all traditional industries could deliver singularly spectacular growth.

无论是零售商、银行还是交通公司，各种非科技传统企业都有了一张可打的王牌。通过与初创企业合作，支持让消费者数据成为个人的法定财产，所有传统行业的现有企业都能实现非凡的增长。

This is a system-level challenge. A start-up is at best today a car — a revenue-generating algorithm — in need of a highway. What big companies have is distribution, audience and reach. They can be a very smart highway.

这是一种系统级挑战。如今一家拥有能创造收入的算法的初创企业最多算一辆汽车，它们需要公路。大型企业有的是分销体系、听众和影响力。后者可能成为非常智能的公路。

The judo move would be for large, traditional enterprises to recognise consumer data rights and proactively value them in their business models.

关键的一步将是，大型传统企业承认消费者的数据权，主动在自己的商业模式中赋予这种权利价值。

One can never win by playing by the rules of someone else’s game: you must change the rules of the game. Every successful entrepreneur knows this. It is time for the judo move.

按照别人的游戏规则来玩，你永远不可能赢：你必须改变游戏规则。每个成功的企业家都明白这一点。是时候走出关键一步了。