You have a really interesting argument against the oft-repeated &quot;If you don&#x27;t pay, you are the product.&quot; I think you are right, that there is great power in anonymized data, but ultimately motives matter. From what I saw as a former scientist, the goodwill of patients donating their tissues formed the foundation of great cancer (and neuroscience, and HIV, and...) research. IBut I think there is a social contract for scientists (and open-source programmers, and nonprofits, and...) that gives them credibility. Maybe it&#x27;s our human nature to trust them, and for them to trust themselves?<p>But 1)corporations are obliged to care about profit, and 2) anonymized data can be de-anonymized with (to me) astonishing ease. In <i>Data and Goliath</i> Bruce Schneier cites a dozen cases of de-anonymized data, from health records to Netflix history to personal identification.[0] It is possible that I&#x27;m just more paranoid than the average GMail user, but this scared the bones out of me.<p>[0] An example on his website: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.schneier.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;archives&#x2F;2013&#x2F;05&#x2F;reidentifying_a.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.schneier.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;archives&#x2F;2013&#x2F;05&#x2F;reidentifying...</a>