What Google thinks you're worth | Proton
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Proton analyzed 54,000 profiles using real ad auction data to determine your worth to Google. How valuable is your data?

The Price of Free Google Report.

Proton analyzed over 54,000 demographic profiles using 2025 ad auction data to estimate what advertisers pay to reach different types of Americans. The range is much wider than you might expect.

The average American generates about $1,605 a year in advertising value. A 35- to 44-year-old man in Bozeman, MT, without children, using a desktop and making high-value corporate searches, generates an estimated $17,929.30. An 18- to 24-year-old father in Fort Smith, AR, using an Android phone and making low-value searches, generates $31.05.

That’s a 577x difference between two people using the same free service.

  • morto@piefed.socialEnglish
    9·
    6 hours ago

    A desktop user is worth 4.9x more than the same person on Android

    This one is really interesting. If using a desktop is more valuable to advertisers, including online stores, why the fuck do all sites and services try to push people into using phones by degrading desktop experience!? That doesn’t make much sense

    • dubyakay@lemmy.caEnglish
      4·
      5 hours ago

      Phones have wider reach. There’s more people doomscrolling on their phones on Instagram, Facebook and reddit, than there are on desktop. It’s a numbers game.

    • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      4 hours ago

      The desktop is worth more because of the assumption that you’re a corporate buyer at work.

      The choice to force you into an app has nothing to do with this at all

      • morto@piefed.socialEnglish
        2·
        4 hours ago

        The choice to force you into an app has nothing to do with this at all

        If desktop users are valued more, it’s because advertisers pay more for them. If a store is willing to pay more to advertise to a desktop user, but also tries to prevent them from using the site, it sounds weird to me.

        The desktop is worth more because of the assumption that you’re a corporate buyer at work. Did they state this, or is it a guess? Most corporate desktop users aren’t even the ones making the corporate purchases

        • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          3 hours ago

          Did they state this, or is it a guess? Most corporate desktop users aren’t even the ones making the corporate purchases

          Yes they stated this.

          If desktop users are valued more, it’s because advertisers pay more for them.

          Because the advertisers thing they’re corporate users at work

          If a store is willing to pay more to advertise to a desktop user, but also tries to prevent them from using the site

          Corporate advertisers are more willing to pay to advertise to corporate buyers. Non-corporate, non-business personal users are not corporate buyers in this context so they benefit more from funneling them into an app for purposes unrelated to advertising to them.