A common claim is that your personal data is worth $240 a year to tech companies, and that you see none of it. The fact is that $240 is not a world price for a person, and not a payment you are owed. Meta’s worldwide average revenue per user was $49.63 in 2024 and $57.03 in 2025. Company revenue that year was $200.1 billion. The $240 line sits near Meta’s US and Canada average, reported around $230 in 2024. A user in the rest of the world generates a small fraction of that. One regional average has been copied as a universal data price.

Average revenue per user is ad money divided by users. It is not a broker’s quote for a file. An advertiser pays the platform. The platform does not pay the user, because the account is free and the ad sale is the price. Adding Google does not turn the figure into a wage. Google’s advertising revenue is a separate pot, often estimated near $60 per internet user worldwide. A US-only sum of the two companies can reach several hundred dollars. That is still company revenue, not a check with your name on it.

The law does not treat the gap as unpaid wages. No major privacy statute gives you property in your personal data. The GDPR gives access, correction, deletion, and portability. The European Data Protection Board has said personal data cannot be treated as a tradeable commodity. The World Bank’s 2021 data report made the same point: ownership does not fit a rights model, because the same record has overlapping interests. You can limit the use. You are not assigned the ad revenue.

Average revenue per user is annual advertising revenue divided by the average user count. Meta publishes the world figure and, in filings, the regional split. A US and Canada user is not the world user. A quarterly figure times four is an annual rate, not a sale of one person’s file.

A data-broker price for a list is a different number, often cents, and it is not in this claim. GDPR Article 15 and Article 20 give access and portability. They do not assign the advertising contract. The European Data Protection Board has rejected the idea that personal data is a commodity you sell.

It is settled that Meta’s world average was $57 in 2025, and that the US and Canada average is several times higher, near the $240 line. It is not settled that your data is worth $240, or that the gap is unpaid wages. Use $57 for the world average. Use about $230 for the US and Canada figure the claim resembles. Use $0 for the royalty the law assigns. Do not use $240 as a universal price.