What is 'data' worth?

[AB]

How much do people pay for data? Say for example I had collected the details of every company registered at companies house, directors names and addresses, key contact details, all the financials, SIC info etc and obviously numbers, addresses etc.

How much is that worth?

[Steamer]

Wasn't it worth a few million in the case of the chap that walked out of the Swiss bank recently with a file of customers details?

[Don]

AB said:

How much do people pay for data? Say for example I had collected the details of every company registered at companies house, directors names and addresses, key contact details, all the financials, SIC info etc and obviously numbers, addresses etc.

How much is that worth?

Free from the Inland Revenue.

Oh they're not supposed to give it away but they are forever leaving stuff on the train.

[Justayellowbadge]

D&B market cap: $3.91 billion.

[AB]

Thats quite specific though isn't it. Worth £millions to someone who is targeting exactly who they want to (i.e. high worth individuals etc).

This is just a load of random names and addresses really? I guess if someone wanted to target the financial controller of every solicitors firm in the country for example this could be handy.

Hmm.

[AB]

Hmm, probably illegal to sell anyway given it was found on a CD-Rom. Just wondered what people pay for it.

[Mr E]

Isn't this the same as "what's paper worth".

Depends what it represents...

[Plotloss]

AB said:

Hmm, probably illegal to sell anyway given it was found on a CD-Rom. Just wondered what people pay for it.

Ahh so its potentially licensed to someone else then?

In that context, its worth about 3 years before parole.

[ascayman]

Plotloss said:

AB said:

Hmm, probably illegal to sell anyway given it was found on a CD-Rom. Just wondered what people pay for it.

Ahh so its potentially licensed to someone else then?

In that context, its worth about 3 years before parole.

[AB]

Plotloss said:

AB said:

Hmm, probably illegal to sell anyway given it was found on a CD-Rom. Just wondered what people pay for it.

Ahh so its potentially licensed to someone else then?

In that context, its worth about 3 years before parole.

CD-Rom, meet my friend bin.

Found on a business park outside a call centre for a huge financial company.

[ewenm]

AB said:

Plotloss said:

AB said:

Hmm, probably illegal to sell anyway given it was found on a CD-Rom. Just wondered what people pay for it.

Ahh so its potentially licensed to someone else then?

In that context, its worth about 3 years before parole.

CD-Rom, meet my friend bin.

Found on a business park outside a call centre for a huge financial company.

Might be worth something to a newspaper...

[mrmr96]

ewenm said:

AB said:

Plotloss said:

AB said:

Hmm, probably illegal to sell anyway given it was found on a CD-Rom. Just wondered what people pay for it.

Ahh so its potentially licensed to someone else then?

In that context, its worth about 3 years before parole.

CD-Rom, meet my friend bin.

Found on a business park outside a call centre for a huge financial company.

Might be worth something to a newspaper...

Unlikely as all that data described is publicly availible. It's a bit like finding a phone book.

[okgo]

I'll give you a fiver for it.

[AndrewW-G]

AB said:

Plotloss said:

AB said:

Hmm, probably illegal to sell anyway given it was found on a CD-Rom. Just wondered what people pay for it.

Ahh so its potentially licensed to someone else then?

In that context, its worth about 3 years before parole.

CD-Rom, meet my friend bin.

Found on a business park outside a call centre for a huge financial company.

Phone the financial company (MBNA?) speak to whoever handles data security and offer to send the disc to them, may not be worth anything to you now, but karma's great at paying people back for good deeds

[ewenm]

mrmr96 said:

ewenm said:

AB said:

Plotloss said:

AB said:

Hmm, probably illegal to sell anyway given it was found on a CD-Rom. Just wondered what people pay for it.

Ahh so its potentially licensed to someone else then?

In that context, its worth about 3 years before parole.

CD-Rom, meet my friend bin.

Found on a business park outside a call centre for a huge financial company.

Might be worth something to a newspaper...

Unlikely as all that data described is publicly availible. It's a bit like finding a phone book.

I was thinking more from a DATA SECURITY BREACH SCANDAL point of view, along the lines of "if they are this careless with some data who would believe they'd be trustworthy with other data". Obviously just scaremongering, but I'm bored...

[Plotloss]

Shame it wasnt a really big power company who after a massive internet gaffe are now so up their own arses with data security its vaguely funny. I say this only because the chap responsible for data security is a bit of a plonker.

[mrmr96]

ewenm said:

mrmr96 said:

ewenm said:

AB said:

Plotloss said:

AB said:

Hmm, probably illegal to sell anyway given it was found on a CD-Rom. Just wondered what people pay for it.

Ahh so its potentially licensed to someone else then?

In that context, its worth about 3 years before parole.

CD-Rom, meet my friend bin.

Found on a business park outside a call centre for a huge financial company.

Might be worth something to a newspaper...

Unlikely as all that data described is publicly availible. It's a bit like finding a phone book.

I was thinking more from a DATA SECURITY BREACH SCANDAL point of view, along the lines of "if they are this careless with some data who would believe they'd be trustworthy with other data". Obviously just scaremongering, but I'm bored...

Oh no, I do understand that you didn't expect the newspaper to make use of the data. I did understand that you meant from a "look what they've lost" point of view. However, like I said, it's not good practice - in fact it's pretty poor, but the data was publicly availible. So the loss itself isn't a breach per se, but as you say, you could dress it up into one of those trumped up non-story scaremongering things I guess.

[sammyboy]

at work we have bloomberg and reuters messanger which has alot of details about companys employees in the financial world. Not that I want to but this is being paid for by my company and because its out in the public domain can this be distributed to outside sources who dont have this access.

[mrmr96]

sammyboy said:

at work we have bloomberg and reuters messanger which has alot of details about companys employees in the financial world. Not that I want to but this is being paid for by my company and because its out in the public domain can this be distributed to outside sources who dont have this access.

No. There will be a clause to the effect that the data supplied to you via this system cannot be reproduced in whole or in part yadda yadda yadda.

[Dupont666]

mrmr96 said:

sammyboy said:

at work we have bloomberg and reuters messanger which has alot of details about companys employees in the financial world. Not that I want to but this is being paid for by my company and because its out in the public domain can this be distributed to outside sources who dont have this access.

No. There will be a clause to the effect that the data supplied to you via this system cannot be reproduced in whole or in part yadda yadda yadda.

That would be the same as the reuters quote that we were using on PH to report the downfall of the banks last year, minute by minute.... not giving two hoots about the fact that people pay a fk load of money for the real time data we were releasing and normally its 15mins behind for everyone outside the financial world.