Democratizing Data – A War for Global Digital Independence

There is an interesting terminology of “surveillance capitalism” that Johann Hari shares in his Best Seller “Stolen Focus”. Johann sheds light on how average person surrenders the most important asset “data” to capitalism and how data is commontidized in exchange for targeted marketing and financial benefits of corporations. This raises a crucial question about whether, in our pursuit of ‘free to use’ services, we are compromising our digital democracy and sacrificing the most precious asset of the modern era – our data.

The term "Survelliance Capitalism" was popularized by Harward professor Shoshana Zuboff in her 2018 groundbreaking book, "The Age of Survelliance Capitalism" as She details out on how survelliance capitalism undermines autonomy and democracy.

With the continuous advancement of AI and ML technologies, there’s a growing concern about the responsible and compliant use of technology and its impact on the safe handling of user data and the privacy of individuals. There has been a strong call to put necessary principal frameworks & regulations in place for fair and responsible use and trade of data. EU has been prime frontier in putting these regulations and compliance measures out followed by other nations leading in AI/ML domain. However, these measures are not enforced and are set standard guidelines that still gives most control of data and its arbitrary control to corporates.

Users of technology have willingly embraced the convenience and benefits of technology applications, services, and products in exchange for their personal information, private data, and predictive data linked to their behavior, usage patterns, and conversations. However, the misuse and commoditization of user data, its exchange with third parties, and its analysis for behavioral insights and targeted advertisements are putting individuals’ privacy at risk.

As the number of applications, services, and devices continues to grow, the volume of data associated with users is expanding exponentially. This data is distributed across multiple platforms and has become a valuable asset for corporations. However, it is also a growing concern for individuals who have unwittingly surrendered control over their personal information and intellectual property. This alarming is to establish a centralized, distributed, and privatized solution that empowers users to regain control over their data, similar to how they hold the keys to their homes.

In a world where voice, face, thumbprints, and personal information are increasingly integral to any interaction with internet-connected applications, services, or devices, it's crucial to provide users with the option to keep their data private and secure. This solution would also include a failsafe mechanism to allow users to erase their data or download it in the event of a data breach or epidemic.

Let’s break it down using an analogy of how things worked in the good old “non-technology dominant” days. On a warm sunny day while one is relaxing at their home, a service personnel would knock on your door, and you had the authority to decide whether to welcome them in, ask them to leave, or interact with them. You retained ownership and central control over your property. However, the modern digital landscape has evolved in a way that has allowed various “service personnel” to enter our digital lives and take control, often without our full awareness. These entities offer us convenience, entertainment, comfort, and more, but they also collect, exchange, and profit from our data. This loss of control puts our personal information and independence at risk.

The core concept of the solution aimed at solving this problem and bringing the ownership and control of all Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is to create a De-centralized Blockchain System that serves as the host of user personal data. All access to any network services/applications that user accesses should have a standard access protocol or handshake protocol in place. Part of this handshake protocol, user data is encrypted and exchanged over encrypted and secure channels. User data is not decryptable without a temporary digital private key that user exchanges when a new session with the service is established and time to live (TTL) of this key is for that particular session.

Companies seeking access to user data for their platforms’ functionality would have to request permission, and any non-identifiable data about a user could be stored in models maintained by the company. Linkage between data stored by company model and data stored on the blockchain would be via exchange of a user identifiable encrypted key which identifies a particular user and is unique to it but is not attached to user’s personal information. Access to this central system would require the user’s explicit permission, ensuring that individuals, not corporations, have control over their data.

As we near this point of technological singularity, it is important to address the issues data ownership and governance now than it ever was before. Time is of the essence, as we are on the cusp of an era where superintelligent systems may further erode our privacy and independence.

A further layer on top of digital decentralized secure exchange could also potentially include a physical device which acts as physical data store where user data lives and user keeps it in their pocket. This device acts as gateway for access when user wants to enable the data vault on the Blockchain system, so this ensures that only owners of the data keep it with themselves and data is not stored on Blockchain network. This way data is only in transit for the duration of session and after its done it goes back to user’s physical device. This requires further research and modelling based on different use cases.

In conclusion, democratizing data through a De-centralized blockchain system empowers users to take control of their digital lives and ensures that the war for global digital independence is one that individuals can win. It’s a crucial step towards protecting user privacy, maintaining data ownership, and enabling data exchange on fair terms.