http://www.realtea.net/personal-data-asymmetry

There is an asymmetry between personal data held by companies and by the individual consumer. Companies know a lot about us, we don't know much at all -- even about what they know. What's the right balance and are we on our way there? (June 2013)Privacy is a relatively new notion in Society. When we started living in our own houses, creating rooms, doors and locks - we got used to the notion of 'privacy'. In the last 50 years, we as individuals have become more private and isolated with both 'good' and 'bad' outcomes.The last 15 years have seen us reconnected in new ways. I might no longer talk to my neighbor in person, but I reveal all sorts of information to people I have never physically met. So we have new social models that we have never before encountered.It is within this backdrop that we should be discussing the balance of data asymmetry between companies and consumers. Back in 2000 I had this notion that organizations would be custodians of our personal data. Over the last 12 years, my idealist perspective has not really changed but I have been observing how business models have adapted to not only leverage personal data, but to capture more and more of it from us.