Opt-in paid tracking

Suppose users want to earn credits in some currency but in order to earn them they have to agree to let some act track their use of MaidSafe (web of trust) style.

What are the implications of this? Should this be allowed?

Currently we have tracking cookies everywhere and we don’t get paid for being tracked.

On SAFE itself I don’t think it would be possible, but I’m assuming rather than saying that because I understand what is and isn’t possible. But in that case, the user would be consenting to an app on the client computer spying on their activity - I don’t see how we could detect or stop that.

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If someone agreed to be tracked, there is no problem. They entered into contract outlining an exchange of privacy for money.

If someone was tracked without consent, then we have a different problem. The Safecoin network has the potential to be very secure, allowing apps to be fully firewalled. As long as this remains the default, those wishing to retain privacy should be free to do so.

The first company to do this was All Advantage. They tracked users and fed ads to them, then they paid users for receiving these ads.

I think that is the sort of model we should plug into SAFE Network only the users who opt-in to be tracked should receive shares/Bitcoins. These shares could act as samples to distribute to the users of SAFE Network for DACs and Decentralized Apps. This would allow the decentralized app developer to buy eyeballs, track users, and pay the user by giving them shares/coins.

Attention is a finite resources. Everyone is going to have some coin, DAC, DAP to try. Additionally the users who allow themselves to be tracked could be paid per hour. It could actually replace mining as a revenue source if you go with the All Advantage model while also promoting the use of SAFE Network because people would be paid to use it.

It would be possible only with consent which is a good thing. We should allow people to install a plugin or extension to let themselves be tracked in exchange for hourly payments.

It could be marketed as “get paid to surf SAFE Network” and be taken viral by rewarding people with higher hourly pay for every new user they convince to opt in. This would market SAFE Network itself but also bootstrap an economic ecosystem for advertisers.

The people who agree to be tracked would be the eyeballs. These people would also be in pretty high demand because every DAC/DApp/Altcoin developer would have to reach them.

So for example you could pay these people $1 an hour just to be tracked. That’s a trivial amount of Bitcoins but you’d for sure find people for whom that is plenty of money. The amount of money they get paid could also be determined by algorithm depending on how many people are online at the time so that some days you can make $5 an hour and other days the minimum of $1.

Now how would DAC developers get clicks? They would offer free shares in their DAC to the first 100 people to click. Then lower the amount in the 500 who click after that and so on. This would get people to click just to get the free shares.

This would also immediately create a huge market.