Data, we are told, is the new gold, the new oil. The most valuable commodity of all.
How much is it worth? Hard to say, but the profits of companies that have been most successful at mining it provide a clue. In 2017 Facebook made $40 billion revenue, $39.9 billion of which came from targeted advertising using the personal data it had amassed from users. Google, the other giant in the data-based digital advertising world, has a different method of accumulation, serving up ads based on keyword searches. But its profits from such activities are similarly eye-watering.
