July 01, 2015

My ideal adblocker, besides earning on what he blocks, should earn on the "quality" ($$$) of what he passes through to me.

Sir, Henry Mance refers to the opinion of Didier Truchot, president and co-founder of Ipsos in that “The idea that Facebook, Google and others should pay internet users for information does not stand up because the sums involved would not attract wealthy consumers”, “Plan to pay internet users for personal data would attract ‘just the poor’, warns Ipsos” July 1.

That depends, if the wealthy are an attractive consumer target, then they might be willing to pay more, not for the data on them but for their attention span.

For instance if non-wealthy little me could get a copyright on those personal preferences that data on me currently reveals, then I could make the following public offer: 

For 1US$ (revisable), for 30 seconds, with reasonable interest, I will look at any unsolicited ad directed to me while travelling the web.

I hereby declare that I am a great consumer and I have a good history of easily falling prey to offers on the web. That said, nothing here should be interpreted as a commitment to purchase anything or to otherwise follow or do what is suggested in any ad for which I have been paid a royalty.

And I would then contract an ad-blocker, not just for blocking purposes, but also to assure those advertisers sufficiently interested in me so as to be willing to pay good money, have access to me. Depending on the efficiency by which I am served, and the little I would get bothered by any unauthorized access to me, I will offer the ad-blocker up to 30% of any income derived by me in royalties on my copyright on my own preferences.

Of course, any really wealthy could charge much more for his attention span.

Sadly though, this does not seem very compatible with the fight against inequality championed by so many… but does that mean I should waste my time attention span for free? Yet, the wealthy could always donate their attention span usage income to the less well off.

@PerKurowski