We live so much of our lives on our smartphones these days that our mobile devices are just full of valuable data that we often unknowingly and freely give to all the major tech companies: our spending habits, our personal preferences, our locations, and much more. Since we can’t really live without our phones, and tech companies aren’t going to stop monetizing our data without a fight, we might as well get our cut of the data pie.
That’s the premise of ZmBIZI phones, the LA-based and minority-owned startup backed by the fintech lender Street Cred Capital that is trying to make our phones work for us. Both its new phone, the Z2, and its proprietary software are designed to share the profit that your mobile data generate, back with you.
An interesting concept but be sure to read their privacy policy. It is true that all mobile phone providers can essentially read all this information anyway and even profit from it, so you probably need to bare that in mind. It is no different really from what Facebook already does, except you get some money in return. For those who ditched Facebook out of privacy concerns, this is probably not the phone for you.
Who knows if the company will be able to realize its vision of paying its users for their data usage or if the startup will just fold. Back in 2017, the FreedomPop V7 phone in Europe had promised a “free mobile plan for life,” but it offered such low data limits (200 megabytes) that made the company pivot its strategy again. Or the Saygus company that raised money in 2006 for a new phone that was never made and ended up defrauding investors.
See
ZmBIZI Z2 is the $550 phone that pays you for your data#
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How much is your personal data worth?
