from today's NY Times re start-up company, Bynamite

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Esther Dyson <edyson () edventure com>
> Date: July 18, 2010 10:27:30 AM EDT
> To: Steve Lohr <lohr () nytimes com>, David Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: from today's NY Times re start-up company, Bynamite

> Interesting... but what makes Ginau Yoon more likely to succeed than Seth Goldstein w RootMarket and the many  others 
> who all have had this same idea? or the services like UPromise that give you deals if you shop with partners?  Is he 
> a great entrepreneur?  because the idea itself is not new.  Or it may be simply that its time has come...  Behavioral 
> targeting is also gaining traction recently; it's the same idea, except with the marketers in control *watching* the 
> consumer rather than communicating with him. 
>
> It's interesting to note that the first round of these companies - WhenU, Claria - began in this way (with much less 
> data and worse UIs) but ultimately turned into spyware because they had such a hard time generating opt-in downloads 
> and instead relied on sneaky practices to get installs.  With luck this time it will be different, because the basic 
> principle is a good one:  Give people control over (the use of) their own data. 
>
>  If I were doing this, I would play up the social angle and let users compare themselves to others (Shopville - I'm 
> sure the name is already in use).. or buy things together ... and then I might end up with a user-demand as well as a 
> user-aggregation version of Groupon.
>
> Whatever, I will follow with interest. 
>
> Esther
>
>
> On Jul 18, 2010, at 9:38 AM, budmorten () aol com wrote:
>
> > July 16, 2010
> > You Want My Personal Data? Reward Me for It
> >
> > http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/business/18unboxed.html   [registration required!] 
> >
> > By STEVE LOHR
> >
> > LIFE, as they say, imitates art. And the way things work commercially today across much of the Web recalls that 
> > chapter in “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” where Tom cajoles his guileless friends into whitewashing Aunt Polly’s 
> > fence. They supply the labor, but he gets the reward.
> >
> > On the Internet, users supply the raw material that helps generate billions of dollars a year in online advertising 
> > revenue. Search requests, individual profiles on social networks, Web browsing habits, posted pictures and many 
> > Internet messages are all mined to serve up targeted online ads.
> >
> > All of this personal information turns out to be extremely valuable, collectively. So why should Google, Yahoo, 
> > Facebook and other ad businesses get all the rewards?
> >
> > That is the question that animates Bynamite, a start-up company based in San Francisco. “There should be an economic 
> > opportunity on the consumer side,” said Ginsu Yoon, a co-founder of the company. “Nearly all the investment and 
> > technology is on the advertising side.”
> >
> > Bynamite, to be sure, is another entry in the emerging market for online privacy products. The business interest in 
> > such products, of course, is being fed by worries about how much personal information marketers collect. Also 
> > playing a part are recent outcries after Facebook changed its privacy practices and Google introduced a social 
> > networking tool, Buzz, that initially shared information widely without users’ permission. Venture capital has been 
> > pouring into Web-based monitoring and privacy protection products like ReputationDefender and Abine, as well as 
> > services that help parents protect children’s privacy online, like SafetyWeb and SocialShield.
> >
> > Bynamite brings a somewhat different perspective to the privacy market. “Our view is that it’s not about privacy 
> > protection but about giving users control over this valuable resource — their information,” Mr. Yoon said.
> >
> > Both the protection and the value approaches to the privacy market could well pay off, says Randy Komisar, a partner 
> > at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the venture capital firm. “What’s intriguing about Bynamite,” he said, “is its 
> > emphasis on privacy as revolving around choice and ownership of data, and ultimately a notion of an exchange of 
> > value.” (Kleiner Perkins is an investor in ReputationDefender but not in Bynamite.)
> >
> > Although Bynamite is a tiny start-up, it points toward larger issues about privacy transactions and pricing of 
> > personal data. “In reality, we constantly make transactions involving our personal information,” said Alessandro 
> > Acquisti, an associate professor of information technology and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University.
> >
> > Every search on Google, Mr. Acquisti notes, is implicitly such a transaction, involving a person “selling” personal 
> > information and “buying” search results. But people do not think about, or are unaware of, the notion that typed 
> > search requests help determine the ads that Google displays and what its ad network knows about them.
> >
> > Bynamite, Mr. Acquisti said, is “simply trying to make these kinds of transactions explicit, more transparent to the 
> > user.”
> >
> > Last week, Bynamite introduced an early, or beta, version of its software, a downloadable plug-in for browsers. That 
> > software and its Web service monitor what ad networks and e-commerce sites collect and assume to know about a user. 
> > A user’s interests are then assembled on a Web page, grouped by categories like “news and current events,” “general 
> > health,” “travel,” “technology” and “shopping.” The categories are weighted by how often you visit different 
> > categories of sites or make purchases at some online merchants.
> >
> > The information tracked by Bynamite is steadily updated, and, at least for me last week, a small pop-up alert at the 
> > bottom of my computer screen appeared every day, informing me of new information about me from ad networks. Mr. Yoon 
> > calls the product’s early version mainly a “mirror,” showing users how the commercial Internet sees them.
> >
> > Users can change that mirror to represent their interests more accurately. For example, I don’t own a car, but my 
> > “automotive” folder soon had several entries, saying I was interested in Mercedes-Benz and other brands, presumably 
> > because middle-age men who visit the Web sites I do are typically attractive targets for car ads. I deleted the auto 
> > interests, suggesting to advertisers that I’m not necessarily a good prospect. Still, I saw a few car ads on sites I 
> > later visited.
> >
> > Bynamite is by no means anti-advertising. It does not block ads. Its Web site recommends free tools, like AdBlock 
> > and NoScript, for people who want ads blocked.
> >
> > In essence, the company has a libertarian, free-market ethos. If consumers have more power and control, it says, 
> > personal information should flow more efficiently to the benefit of both consumers and advertisers, who will be able 
> > to more accurately aim their ads.
> >
> > Like most start-ups, Bynamite faces long odds. To succeed, it must be easy to use, and users must trust it as a 
> > reliable middleman handling their data. It has no business model yet, though it could offer product recommendations, 
> > based on interests, and collect fees on resulting sales from merchants. It hasn’t ruled out accepting ads itself. To 
> > start, its free plug-in software works only on Mozilla and Chrome browsers.
> >
> > IF Bynamite gains momentum, Mr. Yoon predicts that individuals will be able to use their portfolios of interests as 
> > virtual currency. He calls the idea a “consumer’s preference wallet.”
> >
> > Mr. Yoon and his co-founder, Ian Wilkes, are former business and engineering managers at Second Life, the online 
> > community where trading virtual currency for digital goods is common.
> >
> > In a few years, Mr. Yoon says, a person’s profile of interests could be the basis for micropayments or discounts. A 
> > media company, for example, might charge a monthly subscription fee of $10 for news or entertainment programming, 
> > but offer it for $8 to those who exchanged their preference wallets.
> >
> > The discount, in theory, would be justified because advertisers would pay more to market to people whose interests 
> > they knew precisely and thus were more likely to buy.
> >
> > “I may be wrong about the product and our company,” Mr. Yoon said. “But I’m absolutely convinced that the direction 
> > is right, giving people a way to identify and use this store of value that is their personal information.”
>
> Esther Dyson
> edyson () edventure com
>
> 632 Broadway, 10th floor
> New York, NY 10012
> USA
>
> www.edventure.com
> www.flickr.com/photos/edyson
> @edyson



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