Pitts said that as long as companies are upfront with consumers about the way their data is used, paying people for their information seems like a good thing.
“A person’s data is their property,’’ he said.
In the world of biobrokering, though, not all information is created equal.
“Different file types have different share values,’’ said Barry. “Generally speaking, the richer the data, the more shares are allocated to that data.’’
The genotyping data a customer gets from 23andMe, for example, would be worth 50 shares, while a whole genome would equal 300 shares, according to Luna. The company will also collect other kinds of data, like that answered in surveys or collected from fitness trackers. Each share, according to the filing, will be worth about 7 cents. That makes the going rate for a person’s whole genome $21.
“We’re not talking about life-changing money here,’’ said Barry. “What we’d like to focus on is really the transparency of this model.’’
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.