So it’s not exactly easy to understand without help. Because if they’re going to have an impact and have a voice, they first need to understand this landscape, and it’s deliberately opaque. I agree, education is vital and is the only way that we get to make people aware of what it is that is going on. Worse still, all this is very intransparent. That is then giving these people insight into your estimated earnings and brand preferences. For example, if you’re posting an image, the social media platform can use this photo to find out what kind of trademarks you’re using a Boss t-shirt or furniture from Ikea. Nobody can understand what it means when somebody knows my location data or what can be done with pictures. So why can it be harmful that somebody knows your location data? One of the biggest problems we have in the whole data economy is an entirely abstract threat model for people who have not studied computer science. And so, we have to make it easier for people to understand what’s going on with their data. And a law or right you have which you cannot execute is no right at all. In the EU, GDPR is a right, but it’s not easy to administer. It’s a complete view of what’s going on.Ĭorrect. So it’s kind of like mapping your data, what they store, who else can see it, your rights, and what regulations are involved. We can show clearly that this is your data, stored on their systems, and what that means. So, if you’re in Germany, it means you have a contract with Facebook Ireland, and those laws are in charge. And then the second version, which is coming very soon, is then about downloading your data from organizations such as Facebook and showing the context in which the data is stored. We will show you that we know what we’re talking about. And so, the first iteration we made cannot harm you at all because none of your data is involved. One of the most critical aspects of that ecosystem is trust, and trust is something you have to earn. The polyPedia is a system where we store all information about companies acting within the data economy. The polyPod that is out there today is a front end for the polyPedia.
With the polyPod, if you download it today, it lets you look behind the scenes of the data economy. And then, of course, we also built the prototype – the first version of the polyPod and the first version of the polyPedia.
One aspect was, of course, how to build a company that others cannot take over or threaten A system that is so rock solid nobody can harm it. It has to do with our laws, so it’s a multi-dimensional predicament. The whole data privacy issue is partly a technical problem, but it has to do with economic incentives.
Ultimately, this is not only a technical problem.
Therefore, the main message when we launched was, “we know how to fix it right now because we’ve done the research.” We did the research upfront and before we founded the company. So the research started around five or six years ago. When did you start it? And what have you built so far? What can people already do with it? Julio Santos, the technical cofounder of Fractal – creators of the Fractal Protocol, which it says will enable radical markets for data and help keep the web open and accessible for everyone – spoke with me recently to understand how we might be able to regain control of our information. Rather than being mere data providers, members of Polypoly cooperatives co-own the same underlying technology: the polyPod.īack in Berlin! Data Natives 2022, in person and online - tickets available now! And it believes that EU citizens can be the first to gain absolute command over their data.Īt the beginning of 2019, I founded, intending to restore sovereignty over digital data for everyone and thus support European data capital flow to local markets. One organization, polypoly, wants to change the way we use our information and give us back control.
She caused a global stir when she explained how Cambridge Analytica leveraged our data to help change hearts and minds during Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.ĭata sovereignty became more crucial than ever after her revelations, further explained in the documentary The Great Hack. The latest revelation brings back memories of Brittany Kaiser. The most recent Facebook whistleblower, who divulged how the platform knows it is responsible for helping to create divisions through its algorithm, which uses our data to deliver that content, ignores this because it is not good for business. In recent weeks, the topic of data privacy, data security, data sovereignty, and how social media platforms harvest and use our information has reared its head again.