Data leaks permeate discussions at the cultural level. One that’s currently making headlines is Cambridge Analytica’s harvesting of private information from the Facebook profiles of 50 million users. The firm extrapolated voter behaviour based on the US electorate’s social media activities. Regardless of who benefitted during the campaign, which is to say let us set aside politics in this write-up, the most important point not to miss is that Cambridge Analytica did it without the permission of the users.
At a time that the likes of Facebook and Google hold the key to real people‘s online activities, it is crucial to not only report about data breaches but also to remind users of their ownership rights. It’s the same principle that belies what also seems an unfair practice in the offline world: making people pay to get access to their personal information, such as an individual’s medical history in the healthcare sector.
Amidst such issues, the business sector is the likely place to look for solutions. After all, it is in this sector that consumer behaviours are tracked, presenting a potential dilemma for society if left unchecked. It is also in this sector that innovations sparking accountability are expected to spring up.
Here are a few examples of those who have responded to the call of the times.
Wibson – Empowering data owners through control and profit
Data equals money, and logic dictates that the data’s owner should benefit from deploying it. But current global online practices, through the internet’s underlying protocol, give the control to tech giants. These leave individuals in the dark concerning how their data is being used.
Wibson, a decentralised data marketplace, seeks to return the control to data’s rightful owners. Individuals can exchange access to their data for value. And they will be asked for their consent before their identities and personal information are revealed. Further, Wibson is blockchain-based, making it an important innovative player in the data economy.
Senno – Upholding the integrity of information, making public opinion useful in decision making
Speaking of blockchain, Senno deploys distributed hardware and smart contracts to reward supporters of its network with Senno tokens.
Using all the technology systems available and it has developed, this network aims to bring back the wisdom to the crowd. The platform gathers user-generated data from various sources such as social networks, forums, and instant messaging platforms.
Through sentiment analysis, it taps into public opinion in real-time, helping the business and private sectors make decisions.
Meanwhile, the blockchain framework is in place to preserve the integrity of the information being accessed and shared.
“In Senno’s platform, smart contracts will verify all contributed information and pay for it. Blockchain will also be used for immutability so that once the data is stored to the network, it will be impossible to change it, says Elad Peled, the CEO of Senno.
Peled adds that the data will be physically stored on decentralized storage, protected using ECC asymmetric encryption, sharding techniques, and various anti-Sybil attack method.
Big data as oil – preventing spills, putting end users at the centre of data collection
Big data is the new oil, asserts Burkhard Schafer in an article for the National Center for Biotechnology Information. And with that analogy, Schafer also warns against massive spills. During such data leaks, the privacy of the citizens is compromised, exposed even to private and state actors.
The article recognises the need to return the rights to the owners of data. Given that it discusses the data-driven economy not only at the business model level but also at the state level, it somehow supports the previous two examples of business efforts mentioned.
As Schafer defined the state-centric approach, he says, the aim is to empower’ users by giving them property rights and (market transfer) control over their data. He adds by introducing Personal Data Services,” proposed by IS Rubinstein, which is a new business model that will bring about a shift towards a user-centric’ concept of data protection, which seeks to integrate diverse types of personal data while putting end users at the centre of data collection of use, subject to a set of global data principles that include transparency, trust, control, and value creation’.
Final words
Transparency, trust, control, and value creation. These are the elements that will make this endeavour to return data to its rightful owners succeed. To achieve each of them will require tremendous efforts and hopefully, because society and individuals need it to be, they are realised at the quickest time possible.
