Data Cowboys
a sci-fi short story
Cha Myung-joon might seem like a "sensor freak". He has micro monitoring devices implanted in many of his organs: the heart, liver, stomach, lungs, pancreas, kidneys and so on. Cha, a 21-year-old Seoul resident, dropped out of college and is currently unemployed. He plays video games, goes for a stroll to a park, eat at a ramen shop near his cramped apartment, and never forgets to take his pink pills four times a day. The diet drug, which he fails to remember the name of, is in a clinical trial stage. Sensors inside his body constantly transmit biometric data about how the medication affects metabolic activities to a pharmaceutical firm. Cha is being paid for the real time data handsomely enough to fulfill his daily expenses. "I am selling my data the way I like" Cha said on a recently streamed Youtube video chat. "People sell used electric scooters, books, sports gears, and online game items. What's wrong with selling information about my body? It is 100% a legitimate business" he added.
Cha is one of the emerging individual online data vendors. He signed up for the data trading deal at "Healthyland.com", an internet platform that matches drug companies to volunteers for body-sensor-based clinical trials. Healthland.com and other similar services have become popular income sources for many since the government legalized the selling of personal biometric data in 2025. The decision was aimed at alleviating the unemployment problems caused by artificial intelligence technologies. It instigated a controversy that has continued to be debated about so far. Many civil rights advocates were concerned about proliferation of "online human Guinea Pigs". The matter complicated further as personal data sellers rushed to diversify their offers. One male was jailed for attempting to submit biometric data on sexual intercourse activities without the consent from his partner to an erectile dysfunction medicine firm. A group of university students alarmed the country as they implanted micro sensors on their amygdales to provide data on the impact of TV dramas on their emotions to an online video streaming company.
State officials are trying to curb "reckless" biometirc data marketing, but acknowledge that it is impossible to ban the data sales. The prohibition could impede innovation in the entire economy. "Electronics firms, confessionary makers, credit card issuers, universities...they all use paid bio-metric information to do R&D and consumer surverys" said Kim Hui-chul, the director of Ministry of Science, Technology, and Future Planning. "Few would dispute the fact that it is the most effective way to learn about human beings. The ban would slow down the speed of developing technologies ten to five fold" he sighed. Academics warn that the worst scenario would be individual vendors losing control over their data. "A terrorist group could set up a fake clinical trial to hack the sensors of the participants and extract information" specurated Jim Kipling of Seoul National University. "They could use the stolen data to develop powerful weapons -- such as a new antibiotic-resistant bacterium to disrupt society"
Biometric data trade facilitated a stronger connection between people and the tech industry than ever before. Some health care companies new give company sotcks to users who share certain data such as their breathing patterns or their blood's insulin level. The more data you disclose, the bigger stake you will receive. Some data sellers have gone so far to forming cooperatives to do experiments on their bodies. The goal is to obtain direct results and selling them to any interested company. The state has yet to decide if such self-planned experiments are illegal. Cha, the grumbling young man, also recently joined a cooperative and will soon get an injection of a newly-discovered fugus, which is believed to enhance brain activity. Cha said that he was not a "data cow", a term which means somebody who gets exploited to produce information for tech firms. "I know what I am selling and I want to make it more valuable. I am a data cowboy and I run a whole ranch. I feel liberated" he grinned. (END)
