Tech and AI Firms Derive Up to £194,000 From Each UK User's Lifetime Data

4 articles · Updated · Evening Standard · May 26

Up to £194,000 in inflation-linked commercial value is generated from each UK and European internet user over a digital lifetime, according to new analysis by Web3 Foundation.
The estimate reflects how firms monetize search queries, clicks, location data, purchases, messages, images and social posts—first through targeted advertising and increasingly through AI model building and training.
Bill Laboon of Web3 Foundation said many people grasp ad targeting but not that prompts to tools like ChatGPT or even spell-check choices can also be captured and reused.
The report argues users may be excluded from the AI systems their data helped create, even as companies tied to the boom—such as Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple—have reached multi-trillion-dollar valuations.
Web3 Foundation, which advocates a more user-led web, said AI's rising dependence on personal data makes transparency and user control more urgent.

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