In Part 1, we followed the money and revealed how your data gets passed around without your consent. The system works because consumers are fragmented. Alone, you have no leverage against trillion-dollar platforms and shadowy broker networks. But you’re not actually powerless. You just don’t have representation yet. Well, let me tell you how to get it and break the data laundering machine.
You Create Value and Deserve an Agent
When professional athletes first started drawing crowds, team owners kept most of the money. Players had talent and fans, but no leverage. Most didn’t consider or understand the full implications of their contracts, couldn’t access decision-makers, and negotiated alone against organizations with expensive lawyers and accountants. The result was predictable: players got exploited while owners got rich.
Agents helped change that dynamic. They inserted themselves between talent and money, doing what individuals couldn’t do alone: source opportunities, negotiate better terms, and execute deals that protected their clients’ interests. Today, agents don’t just secure salaries. They negotiate endorsements, protect players with guaranteed contracts, and fight for working conditions like mandatory rest days, injury protections, and limits on team control.
The pattern repeats across industries. Actors got agents, then SAG-AFTRA (a labor union). Writers got the WGA. Musicians got managers and performance rights organizations. Whenever individuals create value that companies monetize, professional representation closes the gap.
You create value too. Every search, click, purchase, and location ping generates data that companies convert into trillions of dollars. But unlike professional athletes or actors, you’ve never had anyone in your corner. No one is finding you good deals, negotiating on your behalf, or protecting you from exploitative terms.
Once consumers organize under a single representative, what can that representative actually do? History offers three proven tactics.
Tactic 1: Negotiate for Compensation
When individuals create something valuable, they benefit by organizing and bargaining collectively to establish better terms than they can receive alone. Your data creates value and you need a representative to negotiate for the best price on your behalf. For example, in September 2023, the United Auto Workers (‘UAW’) organized a six-week strike against Ford, Stellantis, and General Motors. The UAW’s stated goals were simple: align corporate profitability with employee well-being, ensure members’ best interests were represented, and end the ‘divide and conquer’ strategies designed to weaken their negotiating leverage.[1] After a series of escalations and high-stakes negotiations, the UAW secured significant wage increases for its members.[2]
Tactic 2: Reshape Company Behavior
Not every company is a bad actor. When they err, most get stuck doing the wrong thing out of inertia rather than malice. Your data flows through these companies, and you need a representative who can show them a mutually beneficial way to handle your property. Sometimes all it takes is the right voice. In the 1970s, the insurance company GEICO was floundering due to mismanagement, heading toward bankruptcy. Enter Warren Buffett on behalf of his investors at Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett didn’t passively invest and hope things would improve on their own. Instead, he intervened by challenging GEICO’s leadership to rethink their approach with both investors and customers.[3] The company turned around, and Buffett’s investment became one of the most successful of all time.
Most companies handling your data are not evil. They are just following industry norms no one has challenged. A representative can be that challenge.
Tactic 3: Expose and Exile Bad Actors
Some companies won’t cooperate. For them, the only solution is sunlight. Your data is being bought by and sold to brokers who rely on obscurity, and you need a representative who can expose them and cut off their access to your property. Exposure forces accountability. In 2020, an investment research group named Hindenburg Research published detailed reports exposing fraud at Nikola Motors and its CEO, Trevor Milton.[4],[5] The research alleged that Milton misled the public to inflate the stock price and attract industry partners. General Motors, previously interested in a major deal with Nikola, couldn’t ignore the findings and broke ties shortly after.[6] Milton was later convicted of securities fraud.[7]
When someone documents wrongdoing and makes it public, plausible deniability evaporates. Companies that once looked the other way are forced to choose between continuing business with exposed bad actors or cutting ties to protect their own reputation. Most choose self-preservation. A representative can shine light on data brokers who traffic in your information without consent and make the industry choose how to proceed.
My Data Union: Your Representative
My Data Union was built to represent you in the data economy. Using our member base as leverage, we employ all three tactics. Like the UAW, we negotiate for fair compensation for and treatment of your data. Like Buffett, we engage companies on your behalf and guide them towards best practices. Like Hindenburg, we research and expose bad actors, removing the industry’s plausible deniability and exiling those who refuse to respect your rights.
The hardest part isn’t winning these engagements. It’s what precedes it: recognizing the problem and choosing to do something about it. The data brokers getting rich off your property count on your fragmentation and inaction. Once consumers unite behind a single representative, the leverage shifts. The execution then becomes the easy part.
Join Us
The data economy doesn’t have to work against you, but you need someone in your corner. Sign up below to join My Data Union and other consumers ready for change. Be the first to receive early access to the tools you need to control, monetize, and protect your data.
[1] https://uaw.org/backgrounder-big-3-bargaining
[2] https://www.npr.org/2023/11/16/1212381342/gm-autoworkers-vote-yes-approve-uaw-contract-ford-stellantis
[3] https://sabercapitalmgt.com/buffett-thoughts-on-geico-in-1976/
[4] https://hindenburgresearch.com/nikola
[5] https://hindenburgresearch.com/nikola-response
[6] https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/30/business/nikola-gm-badger
[7] https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/trevor-milton-sentenced-four-years-prison-securities-fraud-scheme
