January 27, 2012

What is Your Privacy Worth?

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Privacy experts estimate that your personal privacy — your online activities that companies such as Google are collecting and offering to marketers and advertisers — could be worth up to $5,000 per individual per year. Under Google’s new privacy policy, this information could be worth a lot more than that.

Under the current social contract that Google has with its users, you are voluntarily trading that value for the use of a free service.

What do you think ? . . .

Does Google have the right to sell your private information? Should companies like Google and Facebook be paying users for their data?

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: Does the CMB really “prove” the Big Bang?

Since the mid-1960s, the CMB has been identified with the Big Bang’s leftover glow. Could any alternative explanations still work?

A wasp illustration in blue on grid paper is overlaid on a close-up image of effervescent bubbles in a golden alcoholic liquid.

Health

The first known animal that’s “immune” to alcohol intoxication

Could studying the Oriental hornet lead to a treatment for people with alcohol use disorder?

Collage showcasing a stratospheric balloon soaring over Earth and a close-up of fingers, with "The Nightcrawler" emblazoned at the top, capturing the spirit of a creative renaissance.

Business

How AI is ushering in a creative renaissance

Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.

Starts With A Bang

How to make peace with the weirdness of quantum mechanics

Our classical intuition is no good in a quantum Universe. To make sense of it, we need to learn, and apply, an entirely novel set of rules.

Two colorful cells with purple nuclei, green cell edges, and radiating filament structures against a black background.

Health

When muscles work out, they help neurons to grow

The findings suggest that biochemical and physical effects of exercise could help heal nerves.

Up Next

Personal Growth

Obama Leads to Curb Tuition Costs

President Obama has announced a plan to increase the federal tuition loan fund, double the amount of work-study programs and create incentive programs to drive down tuition costs.