Here’s What This Slovenian Startup Is Doing About Your Data Privacy
This week I attended a MyData meetup in Ljubljana, hosted by Datafund — a Slovenian startup that wants to return data ownership back in your hands with the help of blockchain technology.
And it’s only fair. Lately, there’s been a lot of talk of Privacy abuse(Facebook, anyone?) and how Surveillance Capitalism is using the data we input for their own benefit and no compensation to us.
FaceApp
Interestingly, in the recent “FaceApp” scandal users would willingly give access to their entire photo libraries just so that they can use the app’s cool
facial recognition software which renders an image of an older you.
What was later discovered in the app’s privacy policy is that the images users give access to immediately become the property of the App Publisher, in this case, a Russian AI company. The policy continues to state that the user revokes all rights to being compensated for the “data” they have effectively given away.
Being Compensated Part
The being compensated part is interesting to me. Getting paid for data is a fairly new concept, albeit studies have shown that *currently* our data may not be worth more than say $100.
One user sold his data for $2,733 on Kickstarter. To achieve this number, he had to share data including keystrokes, mouse movements, and frequent screenshots.
I see a great incentive for people to start caring more about privacy when there’s something more tangible in it for them. If robots and artificial intelligence are threatening our jobs, then just what do you think we’ll be doing for a living? One thing robots and AI have in common is DATA, it is like fuel for them. If Facebook and Google have grown into the biggest tech firms on the planet based on our data, then surely it must be important enough to regain control of.
Fair Data Principles
There are nonprofit organizations that have a mission to raise awareness and incorporate best data practices into our daily lives.
FairDataSociety.org is one of them and it was established to tackle the social issue of data privacy.
Data privacy is not only a technological issue, but it is also a social issue.
Here are the founding principles on which this organization is based:
- Personal data is you
- Ownership
- Control
- Consensual access
- Economic benefit & Fair value
- Social good
- Balanced influence
- Transparency & Accountability
- Ethics by design
Technology
Blockchain technology enables us to efficiently manipulate with data so that nobody but ourselves can have access to it. We may then proceed to delegate access to chosen entities or invest it in a “Data Fund” and earn a monetary interest on it, as they put it up for auction for advertisers, researchers and anyone else to buy.
Blockchain gives us the ability to:
- Distribute data in storage facilities, while encrypting and decrypting it
- Print a receipt of proof of storage, which includes the date, owner, hash #
DataFund, a Slovenian startup
DataFund is a cool blockchain startup building on Ethereum that has decided to tackle the big privacy issue. And they’re well on their way. They have a firm understanding of what it’s going to take to get there. An idea is not going to be enough, even the most perfect technical execution will not suffice. What is needed is time and social awareness.
Something that is not an immediate threat, does not usually interest us.
Fairdrop
FairDrop.xyz is one of their creations that is available for beta use for free. Simply it is a way to store and send files without it ever touching a central server, where the file can be seen.
It uses the swarm technology illustrated in the image above and so splits the file into several smaller pieces and distributes them to different endpoints.
All while encrypting them with your private key you used to make your account.
The UX is fairly simple as well as it does not bother you with too many external accessories like “hardware wallets” or increasingly complex seed phrases.
FairDrive
A cool product they’re working on as well is called FairDrive and it’s like a data cloud to run your apps on. While it is still in development, the general outline is that you would run your apps through a safety layer which would catch and control your data output.
Data Receipts
Another cool concept they’re working on is Data Receipts. It’s a cool reminder of where and what data you left behind.
With Data Receipt management software you can even track all the websites that have access to your data. With the help of GDPR law, you can then ask that data to be removed from their database.
It’s a cool little way to keep track of when and where you gave consent for your data to be used. Remember, it’s your data!
“Data Fund”
If advertisers, researchers and whoever else wants to use your data, you can choose who gets to see what and get compensated for it.
The idea this company has is to pool together user data into “Data Funds” and earn interest based on use. This makes a lot of sense already, since marketers, big companies, and in the future, robots and algorithms all need big data to thrive in the competitive economy of today.
Summary
It’s a two-lane road. Even though we have the technology to make data privacy happen, there’s still work to do. The technical part may be planned out but it has not yet been fully developed, tested and verified. The social aspect is also a challenge. MyData.org is doing its best to spread awareness and incorporate principles on which a user-centric data ownership culture can emerge. Due to this fact, it is a long-term project, but one which will increase in importance as time goes by.
While some people do not value their privacy just yet, maybe with the advent of AI and ML things will change their mind: various AI gimmicks that use your face in public without your approval, or your most personal secrets being used as marketing tools or god forbid, leverage in social extortion.
Data is important and meaningful ways to capture and control that data will only increase in demand as time goes by. You can take great preventive measures today, by choosing where and what information you give about yourself. Generally, society is here for you, but the big tech companies may not be so compassionate as they will look for exploits and opportunities to grow their businesses at all costs.
Read my previous article on Data:
https://medium.com/@sanneh.si/data-collection-accounting-and-distribution-18eca269b471
