Is the Internet Broken?
Accountability and Ownership of Data Could Fix It
FUTURE PROOF – BLOG BY FUTURES PLATFORM
The Internet just turned 28 years old, and nearly half of the globe is on-line. Is it time to celebrate? A key inventor of the WWW, Tim Berners-Lee is concerned about the current state of the Internet. According to Berners-Lee, three trends threaten the Internet; people have lost control over their personal data, misinformation spreads fast, and political advertising lacks transparency.
Loss of personal data happens as companies require it against free content and services. “It creates a chilling effect on free speech and stops the web from being used as a space to explore important topics, such as sensitive health issues, sexuality or religion,” Tim Berners-Lee says in the Guardian.
Misinformation spreads like wildfire because it is in the interest of search engines and social media sites that users click and share. Truth and facts are not profitable for their business models. “Through the use of data science and armies of bots, those with bad intentions can game the system to spread misinformation for financial or political gain,” Berners-Lee says.
Political advertising benefits from social media profiles that help customise messages to voters. “Targeted advertising allows a campaign to say completely different, possibly conflicting things to different groups. Is that democratic?” he asks.
Ownership over our data is one of the solutions that could “fix the Internet”. Berners-Lee sees that to achieve this, Search Engines and Social Media companies need to collaborate. He also works on an initiative following these principles. Also, changing the logic of web content and service revenue to subscriptions and micropayments is part of the solution. “We need more algorithmic transparency to understand how important decisions that affect our lives are being made.” Berners-Lee has it right, but why would companies like Google want to help us gain control over our data?
One paradox haunts the Internet. We are concerned about the surveillance by states and companies of our personal Internet use. We should be able to be anonymous and not traceable. Well, companies and spammers enjoy the same liberty. The paradox is then that while we want privacy, we don’t want to be accountable for our own behaviour online.
Accountability could be a solution to some of the Internet’s current problems. This means linking data to those who publish it in an authenticated way, and giving levels of trust to sources. Blockchain could offer technical means to do so. But who does the rating of trust? You.
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