Over the last few years there have been a number of stories, ideas and postings regarding selling personal data. I thought I'd gather them up in one place because they are defining a requirement that needs to be fulfilled - probably within the next 12 months.

2002 - Chris Downs, founder of the Service Innovation and Design company Live|Work set up a project called Loome. Here he offered 800 pages of personal information up for sale on eBay. The project was also covered by Business Week in its article Wanna See My Personal Data? Pay Up.

2003 - John Deighton of Harvard Business School also proposed that individuals should capitalize on their personal data rather than relying on regulators to protect their privacy from Telemarketers, Dataminers and Consumer companies. An interview with Deighton was published by CNET News. The concept was detailed in his paper 'Market Solutions to Privacy Problems?'

2006 - Dennis D. McDonald has also been considering the sale of his personal medical and financial data. The principles that he states include the individual being the rightful owner of the data and therefore being the one who will stand to financially benefit from any transaction involving that data. The idea is detailed in his blog entry entitled Should We Be Able to Buy and Sell our Personal Financial and Medical Data?

2006 - Kablenet reports a scheme by Bracknell Forest Borough Council in the UK that allows individuals to sell their own personal data that is collected on Council issued Smartcards. 45,000 residents carry cards that contain information such as library books borrowed, indications of income and family. A council spokesman said that this data could allow companies to target direct mail with enough accuracy to stop it being annoying, as it would present people with offers that were of genuine interest. Proceeds from the sales would create discounted council tax for the data owner. The story can be found at Data sales for tax cuts.

2007 - An person only identified by the eBay handle 'highlytargeted' has auctioned off ' non-personally identifiable information to help you better target ads to me'. The package included the past 30 days internet search queries, past 90 days web surfing history, past 30 days online and offline purchase activity, Age, Gender, Ethnicity, Marital status and Geo location and the right to target one email ad per day to me for 30 days. If the auction is still available, you can see it here.

2007 - Iain Henderson who blogs on Right Side Up articulates the need for a system of Personal Information Management that will allow an individual to take ownership of their data, to be informed of data breaches and to be able to captalize on any trading of that personal information. More detail can be found on the Right Side Up site in the posting Can I own my data.