Verb launches marketplace where consumers sell personal data to AI labs

Verb, a data exchange company, launched a marketplace on Thursday that allows everyday consumers to sell access to their personal data directly to companies, including AI labs seeking training material. Users install the Verb tracker on their phones, which logs selected activities like shopping habits and social media use. They can toggle off categories they'd rather keep private. The more data shared, the higher potential earnings. Sellers set their own price, with Verb providing estimates based on the volume and types of information shared. Buyers can be blocked individually. CEO Cyrus Beschloss told Axios that this lets people "monetize something that for decades we've given away for free." The company expects AI companies to become major customers, as developing capable models requires enormous amounts of training data. Beschloss believes this could create "a completely new asset class."

The idea isn't entirely new. Mercor connects AI companies with people who generate training data, while MIT-spinoff Vana lets users pool data and collectively decide corporate access. However, Verb's approach directly monetizes personal behavioral data through a marketplace. The biggest hurdle is persuading consumers that selling access is worth the privacy tradeoff. Verb claims to exclude sensitive categories like passwords, text messages, and health data from analysis, but a marketplace built around personal information carries inherent risks if data is exposed or misused. Beschloss acknowledged the possibility of breaches, saying security was integral to the platform's design: "If we can't tell users that their data is safe, then we are not a company." The larger bet is whether consumers will shift from surrendering data for free online services to demanding direct payment. If successful, it could give AI companies another behavioral data source while redirecting some economics back to individuals. It also creates a new incentive to share more, making privacy a priced part of every transaction.