在線廣告是當今數字經濟的血液，它為依賴廣告的公司創造了數以百億計的收入——僅2017年就達到880億美元，原因是企業爭相吸引乃至獨占消費者的注意力。由于這個領域的貨幣是人們的關注和數據，而非美元和美分，這樣的監控資本主義給個人帶來了巨大成本。

今年的數據丑聞層出不窮，令消費者對企業收集并存儲其個人數據的方式感到擔心。他們不光希望能夠信任與之分享個人數據的公司，還想自信地確認這些公司不會把他們的信息賣給未曾謀面的第三方。因此，對隱私友好型業務模式的需求越來越大，這種模式的交易簡單明了，成本清晰可控。

與隱私需求上升并行的另一種市場趨勢是訂閱的崛起。過去五年中，訂閱市場有了長足發展，僅電子商務訂閱收入就從2011年的5700萬美元增至2016年的26億美元。所謂FANG概念股之一的Netflix證明，訂閱業務能帶來高額收入。

考慮到消費者在隱私和訂閱服務兩方面的需求，世界上的頂尖科技公司是時候該提供相關業務了。

隱私在行動

為了探究基于消費者隱私原則的訂閱有多大潛力，我們假設在另一個平行世界中的Facebook提供了一種付費產品。

要利用這個關口，Facebook可以推出一個完全沒有廣告和追蹤程序的付費版本，并將其作為世界上第一款應用廣泛的隱私友好型社交網絡進行推廣。如果每月收取8-10美元訂閱費，“收費版Facebook”就有可能幫助該公司吸引具有隱私意識而且正在逐步退出這個平臺的受眾，甚至有可能帶來和美國、加拿大廣告業務相當的收入。

作為沒有廣告的付費產品，收費版Facebook不再需要壟斷用戶的注意力以盡可能地提升廣告效果，也不再需要收集數據來盡量提高轉化率。相反，它可以為用戶帶來實用性和價值，以此證明他們的訂閱費沒有白花。為促使用戶訂閱，它可以為其短信app添加其他功能，提供優質視頻內容，并讓用戶體會到自主（而有限）的社交體驗，而不是它沒完沒了的新聞推送。另外還有其他以實用性和個性化功能為主的產品創新，而不是與用戶互動。

隱私友好型訂閱服務有可能給Facebook帶來新的市場機會，但Facebook并非這種新模式的唯一潛在受益者。幾家科技巨頭都有可能從中受益。

舉例來說，谷歌和亞馬遜已經推出了付費訂閱業務。我們的研究人員開展的一項研究顯示，作為在網絡上擁有最多追蹤程序的公司，谷歌已經在收取用戶的Google One增容費。谷歌可以基于這種訂閱模式推出私人版Gmail、谷歌地圖等服務，并收取很少的費用。

與之類似，亞馬遜已經有了Prime業務，這項訂閱服務異常成功，2018年全球用戶數量超過1億人。雖然亞馬遜看到了數字廣告出色的增長——去年實現收入40億美元，但和其他廣告巨頭相比仍是小巫見大巫——谷歌的廣告收入達到令人咂舌的950億美元，Facebook也獲得了幾乎400億美元廣告收入。不過，亞馬遜不必和它們苦戰，它可以讓自己的Prime會員服務更進一步，為用戶的網上購物提供前所未有的隱私保護。

這樣，兩家公司都有可能從本質上為隱私定價，并讓用戶選擇是用金錢還是數據來換取它們的技術。

全局考慮：數據所有權

隱私友好型訂閱服務的關鍵基礎是數據中心，用戶在此可以看到并主動選擇這些公司可以擁有哪些和他們相關的數據。更重要的是，如果愿意，用戶可以徹底刪除、編輯或出口其數據。這樣，用戶的隱私及其對社交和數字足跡的把控就有可能變成一種打包產品，作為付費用戶體驗出售。這種方法不光能帶來巨大的消費者價值，還可以就歐盟的《通用數據保護條例》（General Data Protection Regulation）等強勢隱私法規給這些公司打個預防針。

在大型科技公司受到嚴厲批評的環境下，這種把隱私作為付費服務的業務模式將為用戶和企業之間形成互惠關系鋪平道路。Netflix等訂閱公司已經為基于訂閱的未來奠定了基礎，現在則輪到全球科技龍頭企業把隱私放在其業務的最前沿了。（財富中文網）

本文作者杰里米·蒂爾曼是隱私保護插件開發商Ghostery的產品主管。

譯者：Charlie

審校：夏林

Online advertising is the lifeblood of today’s digital economy, generating billions of dollars of revenue for ad-supported businesses—$88 billion in 2017 alone—as companies try to capture and monopolize consumer attention. With the currency being attention and data rather than dollars and cents, this surveillance capitalism extracts a huge cost on individuals.

This year has been riddled with a slew of data scandals that have consumers worried about the ways in which companies collect and store their personal data. Not only do consumers want to trust the companies they share personal data with, but they also want to feel confident that the company won’t go selling their information to unknown third-parties. As a result, there is an increasing demand for privacy-friendly business models where transactions are straightforward, with the costs clearly communicated.

This increased demand for privacy parallels another market trend: the rise of subscriptions. In the past five years, the subscription market has grown massively, exploding from $57 million in revenue in 2011 to $2.6 billion in 2016 in e-commerce alone. Netflix, one of the so-called FANG stocks, is Exhibit A that subscription businesses can earn massive revenue.

Considering consumer demand for both privacy and subscription services, it’s time for the top tech companies of the world to deliver on it.

Privacy in action

To explore the potential of subscriptions built on the principle of consumer privacy, let’s consider an alternate universe where Facebook offered a paid product.

To capitalize on this moment, Facebook could offer a premium version of its platform that is completely ad- and tracker-free and market it as the world’s first widely used, privacy-friendly social network. With an $8 to $10 monthly subscription, “Facebook Premium” could help the company attract a privacy-conscious audience that is increasingly less engaged with its platform, and potentially generate the same amount of revenue as it does from advertising in the U.S. and Canada.

As a paid product with no ads, Facebook Premium would no longer have the impetus to monopolize user attention to maximize ad impressions, nor would it need to harvest data to maximize conversion rates. Instead, it could deliver utility and value to its users as justification for the subscription cost. To entice users to subscribe, it could offer additional features for its messaging app, premium content for video, a curated (and finite) social experience that replaces its bottomless newsfeed, and other product innovations that focus on useful and personalized features rather than user engagement.

While privacy-friendly subscription services could open new market opportunities for Facebook, it isn’t the only company that could benefit from this new model. There are several tech giants that could benefit in similar ways.

For example, Google and Amazon already offer paid subscriptions. Google, which has more trackers across the web than any other company, according to a study done by our researchers, already charges users for increased storage on Google One. Google could build on this subscription structure to offer private versions of Gmail, Google Maps, and other services for a nominal fee.

Similarly, Amazon already offers Prime, its wildly successful subscription service with over 100 million members worldwide in 2018. Though Amazon is seeing impressive growth in digital advertising, pulling in $4 billion in revenue last year, it’s still dwarfed by the other ad giants—Google raked in a whopping $95 billion, and Facebook generated almost $40 billion. Rather than fight that uphill battle, Amazon could enhance its Prime membership with a new tier that grants users unprecedented privacy in e-commerce shopping.

In this way, both companies could essentially put a price on privacy, and let its users choose whether they want to pay for their technologies with money—or with data.

The bigger picture: data ownership

A critical foundation of privacy-friendly subscription services would be a data hub where users can see—and have an active role in choosing—what data these companies have related to them. More importantly, if and when a user wants to, they could completely delete, edit, or export their data. In this way, users’ privacy and control over their social and digital footprint could be turned into a product that is packaged and sold as a paid user experience. Not only would this approach offer tremendous consumer value, but it would also inoculate these businesses against aggressive privacy regulation like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

In a world where big tech is facing harsh criticism, this privacy as a paid service business model would pave the way for a mutually beneficial relationship between users and businesses. Netflix and other subscription companies have already created the basis for a subscription-based future, and now it’s up to the leading tech organizations of the world to put privacy at the forefront of their business.

Jeremy Tillman is the director of product at Ghostery.