[LINK] Tim Berners-Lee paints the sky a Solid blue

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

There's at least two types of "personal" data

1. Data about the person that the person is aware of and can or might
want to access and/or control

2. Data about the person that the person has no awareness of. This can
be created by a third party generating (linking, correlating, analysing)
data from other sources or by observing the person and storing data thus
generated. e.g. vehicle number plate recognition systems, CCTV, parking
station systems, browsing history, google search history, mobile phone
based tracking systems, loyalty card schemes, Facebook/Twitter etc
activity, IOT data, FitBit/medical device data.

I can see how Solid might have a part to play in #1, but not #2. And
they are the ones that are potentially more insidious.

On 30/09/2018 12:17 PM, Rick Welykochy wrote:
> https://www.inrupt.com/blog/one-small-step-for-the-web
>
> 28 September 2018
>
>     "... for all the good we’ve achieved, the web has evolved into an
> engine of inequity and
>     division; swayed by powerful forces who use it for their own agendas.
>
>     Today, I believe we’ve reached a critical tipping point, and that
> powerful change for the
>     better is possible - and necessary.
>
> This is why I have, over recent years, been working with a few people
> at MIT and elsewhere to develop Solid <https://solid.inrupt.com/>, an
> open-source project to restore the power and agency of individuals on
> the web.
>
> Solid changes the current model where users have to hand over personal
> data to digital giants in exchange for perceived value. As we’ve all
> discovered, this hasn’t been in our best interests. Solid is how we
> evolve the web in order to restore balance - by giving every one of us
> complete control over data, personal or not, in a revolutionary way."
>
> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
>
> The above blog entry was discovered in this article:
>
> https://www.fastcompany.com/90243936/exclusive-tim-berners-lee-tells-us-his-radical-new-plan-to-upend-the-world-wide-web
>
>
>     "The difference here is that, on Solid, all the information is
> under his control. Every bit of data
>     he creates or adds on Solid exists within a Solid pod–which is an
> acronym for personal online
>     data store. These pods are what give Solid users control over
> their applications and information
>     on the web. Anyone using the platform will get a Solid identity
> and Solid pod. This is how people,
>     Berners-Lee says, will take back the power of the web from
> corporations."
>
> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
>
> My first impression was "Our web founder is going to save his techno
> child." This is a Good Thing (TM).
>
> My subsequents thoughts have taken me into areas of rogue agents
> abusing PODs (personal online
> data stores) - we all know that nothing is totally secure anywhere in
> this world.
>
> Further thoughts lead to corporates and other power- and data-hungry
> mobsters wanting to control and
> aggregrate Solid, perhaps in ways we've already witnessed and
> definitely in ways we have not.
>
> Which leads to major concerns of unintended consequences, the very
> vehicle that has brought us digital
> consumers to where we are at today.
>
> I trust and entertain the wisdom and "grumpiness" of Linkers - a
> little bit of Luddism goes a long way
> towards preventing premature digital disasters, if only someone would
> listen!
>
> So let's have at it. Can those with the good intention of leading the
> way to producing the Solid vision of
> Berners-Lee protect it from the multitude of pitfalls that await its
> implementation? The challenge will be
> in anticipating the misuse of the technology and guarding against that
> misuse, a task of no small order.
>
>
>
> cheers
> rickw
>
>

-- 

Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Canberra Australia
email: brd at iimetro.com.au
web:   www.drbrd.com
web:   www.problemsfirst.com