Data Manifesto

Jeffrey Wernick

The basis for any society to respect the individual is predicated upon the sovereign individual. Our most important property right is ourselves. If we lose ownership of ourselves, we become enslaved. The property of others.

There is established contract law and property law that deals with ownership and transfer of property. We can only sell what we own. Or have some document assigning either ownership to us or an agency agreement that permits us to act as a fiduciary on behalf of the owner.

Our economic system is not about compensating for effort or work. But we reward value. Independent of the effort required to put into it. Returns to financial agents is an excellent example of that. The reward is for the value of money.

Today, the most valuable firms are monetizing what is not theirs. In none of the agreements between the user of social media and other platforms that monetize data. Is there a transfer of property. People agree to some limits or not to their privacy. But privacy and property are completely different. And should not be conflated.

We are comprised of our attributes. That defines who we are. We are the sum total of our attributes and more. Apparently there is great commercial value in understanding our attributes and then using what is learned, sometimes in our interests and sometimes against our interests but never with our permission and never with the recognition that we have not transferred copyright over ourselves to others to be sold. We are being sold. That is slavery. To dissect us, package us for commercial gain without compensation nor consent. That is not an invasion of our privacy but theft of our property. Only we own ourselves.

What we do. What we think. The activities we engage in. Evidently is very valuable. So anyone producing data that others are buying, even if not the raw data but attributes extracted from it. Are clearly creating value. Just without compensation.

My data manifesto. Data is our Property. Data should only be used with our Permission. On our behalf. Data must be Portable. We can transfer all of it at any time to anywhere we want. The holder is just a curator on our behalf. An agent. And if Data is not Property, we lose our Personhood. We are dissected like classroom biology experiments.

Normally, the only time we are dissected. It is called an autopsy. We are dead. And there is suspicion of the death caused by unnatural causes. The dissection occurs after death and for the pursuit of truth. Not private gain. Their are only rights to our body parts if we give explicit permission to donate them.

One definition of rape is that it is an outrageous violation done without our consent and through deception. It seems very evident that is what social media and other platforms that sell our data. Are doing. They never got our consent or permission to transfer our property. They violate us. And do it through deception. It is an act of rape. Digital rape. Data rape. We are violated. We are dehumanized. It is outrageous. And it is accomplished through deception.

The selling of data is human trafficking. The selling of contraband. A violation of our human rights.

With social media platforms increasingly and unlawfully monetizing from the user data, Wernick believes that Bitcoin holds the ability to solve this issue due to its decentralized and distributed foundation that is solely governed by people and the protocols established by people.

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