Startup CXO

Chapter 110Privacy Advice for Startups

Data is the new gold standard. Let that sink in a minute. For some people data is irrelevant, it is a non‐issue for them. Yes, they know they're being tracked but they don't care; yes, they know companies know how they got to the company website, how long they stayed, what they did there, and where they went when they left, but it doesn't bother them; yes, they know that their mobile phone knows where they've been, and it's always been that way, so it seems normal. Because of its durability, gold has been used to store value in the form of money. In many countries, printed and minted money used to be linked to stored gold, which was reserved in the central bank. This way, central banks used to print as much money as they had gold reserves. However, the idea of gold as the most important economic asset has passed. Instead of entrepreneurs going to California to look for gold, as they did in the past, they now go to Silicon Valley to create companies that exploit the acquisition and sharing of data. The most valuable asset of Uber, the ride‐hailing service that does not own a single taxi, is the data of the people who use it. The prime asset of Google, the largest library, which owns no physical library, is the index that takes customers to their desired websites. Therefore, the new valuable asset is not gold but it is data. Data has become the new gold!

As a startup, you absolutely cannot have a whimsical or lackadaisical approach to data ...