Data is a Political Challenge
These last few years the news have been constantly filled with reports about data breaches.
In 2015 there were more than 700 million data records that have been compromised, in 2016 this number almost doubled to 1.3 billion. This staggering increase has led us to look upon data security with disappointment and even resignation. Neither government, nor private industry seems to be able to deter hackers from gaining access to sensitive data. In many cases breaches are not detected for months and some cases are probably not detected at all.
Data privacy, data markets and data governance are not only a technical, but also a political problem. Laws are the only thing that at least hold companies a little bit accountable. How is the problem solved in the EU, MADANA’s home? The European Union might have one of the strongest regulations on this topic and has taken a step into the right direction with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which replaces a 20 year old directive and will become effective on May 25th 2018. The aim of this legislation is primarily to give control back to citizens and residents over their personal data. But a short look into the regulation itself shows the fundamental struggle:
The right to the protection of personal data is not an absolute right; it must be considered in relation to its function in society and be balanced against other fundamental rights, in accordance with the principle of proportionality.
REGULATION (EU) 2016/679
Personal rights always have to be balanced with the interest of society in as a whole. Everyone benefits from a growing economy. Corporations and startups need easy access to information to generate value for themselves and society. But we at MADANA also understand that in our current world this trade off always is in favour of big corporations. That’s why we partnered with organizations like BITMi or the European Digital SME Alliance which are interest associations that influence legislation on behalf of small and medium sized IT companies. We all share the common goal to create a world full of open systems where anyone can participate on an equal footing. Be it industry giants, small companies or private people themselves.
With MADANA we are creating a technical solution that inherently combats the problem that new EU law is not able to solve. A system where the private data always stays in control of the producer and where data analysis buyers are still able to extract valuable insights. A system where privacy is protected and business is still enabled. Through the power of Blockchain all parties, even very small ones, can collaborate without having to trust each other and where value is shared fairly.
This vision is our focus and to make it a reality we intend to pressure data markets from many sides. The foundation is a viable technical solution, but also a movement that stops the groups that benefit the most from our current flawed system. To achieve this we at MADANA have found our partners and will speak at public events to achieve a long lasting change.
More informations about our partners and the events we will speak at will be in the upcoming blog posts. Visit our website, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and subscribe to our newsletter to not miss out!
