It’s personal.
Your data is everywhere. Love it or hate it, every aspect of your life is out there in one form or another, purchased for fractions of a penny, and used to target you, your family, and your network. It’s hard to comprehend just what the means for you, but ultimately it comes down to a very simple concept: privacy.
Where do we, as a society, draw the line as to what is public and what is private? At this point most people recognize that what they put online — specifically on their socials — is inextricably tied to them and their online persona. But what about everything else? What about your page views? The time you spend idle on an ad, or a section of an app? That information is all collected and monetized through data brokers, or in house in some instances. This data may seem innocuous, but it paints a very detailed picture of who you are, what you like, what you may be going through, where you live and work, who you’re affiliated with, and how susceptible you are to manipulation.
The next question is what do we do about this? Well, as of this moment, there isn’t much. Legally speaking, there is no explicit fundamental right to privacy, and to the extent that right does exist, it’s highly limited in nature to scenarios that are specifically outside of the digital realm. Over the years attempts have been made to apply common concepts of law to the digital space, but as noble as the attempts may be, they are simply inadequate. In the EU, there are certain protections in place, such as the right to be forgotten.
Within the United States, it is far more fragmented, divided state by state, and at the federal level there are dozens of agencies, each with their own snippet of oversight or say in the matter. For something as ethereal as the internet, how can we operate in such a fragmented way? In all likelihood, your data has traveled an unquantifiable expanse, has been stored on servers outside of your jurisdiction and has landed in the hands of companies and individuals who, for all intents and purposes, have no problem sharing your data with anyone who is will to pay. Believe me, people are willing to pay.
Our vision is an understanding of data in which the data of the individual is no different than their intellectual property, their personal space. How would we go about actually doing something like that? Well, one way would be to require that companies not data mine, or purchase data from data brokers. We can achieve this by making it possible for a person to enable a personal plugin, or key, which carries all the anecdotal data they produce. From there, a user can choose when and where to share that data, and what data they want to share; each snippet would be tokenized and trackable, kind of like a package. The user can then be alerted as to where that tokenized data is stored, if it was sold or transferred, or showed up in a leak or a breach. In the event that data is transferred or purchased, the user would need to be alerted with a clear description of what data was transferred or sold, to whom, and for what purpose.
A system like the one described above is unlikely to ever exist. But the positive steps to get us closer are through the legislature and the courts. Of course, nothing is guaranteed. As the younger generations begin taking over, we will see a more unified front on the issue of data and privacy, but for the time being we will need to rely on the laws we have in place to accomplish what we can.
Our vision is to identify those opportunities on both ends of the spectrum: for the corporations who are looking to control their data, and the users who are trying to protect it.