The Hidden Price of Personal Data in the Age of AI: Insights from IPTC Researcher David Rodríguez Torrado

21/11/2025

The exponential growth of connected devices and AI systems has turned personal data into one of the most valuable resources of the digital economy. While users routinely hand over vast amounts of information (often unknowingly) the mechanisms behind this continuous data extraction remain largely opaque. Smartphones, smart TVs, IoT devices, and mobile apps generate detailed profiles that companies use for behavioral prediction, targeted advertising, price discrimination, and AI training.

A key voice in uncovering these risks is David Rodríguez Torrado, researcher at the Information Processing and Telecommunications Center (IPTC) and professor at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM). As a co-creator together with José María del Álamo, also IPTC researcher, of AutoGDPR , a platform that evaluates GDPR compliance in Android applications, Rodríguez Torrado highlights that the most of the mobile applications collect far more data than necessary, feeding the data flows of a small number of dominant technology companies.

He warns that this creates two major threats:

  1. A growing power asymmetry, where companies can anticipate user behaviors, shape decisions, or restrict access to services based on increasingly precise personal profiles.
  2. A structural risk, as the concentration of global data flows in a handful of corporations reinforces their market dominance and undermines digital sovereignty.

Rodríguez Torrado also stresses that companies combine data from diverse sources—location, browsing history, social networks, and connected devices—to infer sensitive traits such as emotional states or future intentions. This predictive capability, he argues, expands the potential for opaque or discriminatory uses of personal data.

Despite these challenges, he encourages users to be proactive: disable non-essential data collection, minimize the information shared with apps, and be especially cautious with biometric data. Ultimately, Rodríguez Torrado emphasizes that awareness and selective disclosure are essential to preserving control in an increasingly data-driven world.

José María del Álamo Ramiro: GS / ORCID / LinkedIn

David Rodríguez Torrado: ORCID / LinkedIn

Auto GPDR : http://autogdpr.org/

Original source:  “El Español”, 19 de noviembre de 2025, “El valor de los datos personales en la era de la IA: por qué no deberíamos ‘regalarlos’ y para qué los quieren las tecnológicas “ por Ismael Marinero.  https://short.upm.es/jd9tk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/iptc-upm/

For more information: www.iptc.upm.es

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