Data has been largely privatised by big tech. Companies like Meta, Google and Amazon managed to amass unprecedented amounts of user data, which gives them insights into everything from consumer behaviour to public health.
Big tech not only collects user data to increase its bottom line. It increasingly uses it to influence politics all over the world. In 2018, the Cambridge Analytica scandal demonstrated how social media can be used to influence elections. Twitter, now called X, is currently being re-built as a mouthpiece for right-wing sentiments.
Privact wants to reclaim the power associated with our personal data by establishing the infrastructure necessary for secure and decentralised personal data storage. Giving users control over their own data will put an end to it being co-opted for financial and political gains.
Leveraging the most common unused asset: our smartphones
To store the vast amounts of user data constantly being generated, tech companies are building ever larger and more expensive data centres. Meanwhile, billions of smartphones lie dormant most of the time, using only a fraction of their computing power. By leveraging these unused assets, privact wants to make data available to institutions that need it the most to improve societal well-being – while at the same time preserving the users’ privacy.
Private companies can also apply for access to the data, provided they are willing to be transparent about their business processes. In return, they gain insights into high-quality market data to improve their products and services. Privact rewards socially and ecologically beneficial behaviour, further increasing the contribution to the common good.
Not sure I like the first paragraph. Not, that I disagree. But I think we should not speak about others or specific companies, but rather concentrate on us. I would really prefer to not put company names here.
Concerning smartphone, we must be aware, that this will not be the first step and may still be a long time coming. Unused assets may also be your game console or other. Again, I agree: the smartphone will be a really important target. But should we put it so prominently for the above reasons?
Transparency about business process sounds very broad. Knowing what you mean, I can see how and why you got here, but for the uninitiated, that sounds a bit out of place. We really care only about some process and their carbon footprint.
Data has been largely privatised by big tech. A handful of companies managed to amass unprecedented amounts of user data, which gives them insights into everything from consumer behaviour to public health.
Big tech not only collects user data to increase its bottom line. It increasingly uses it to influence politics all over the world, from allowing the spread of misinformation to enabling right-wing actors to disseminate anti-democratic sentiments.
Privact wants to reclaim the power associated with our personal data by establishing the infrastructure necessary for secure and decentralised personal data storage. Giving users control over their own data will put an end to it being co-opted for financial and political gains.
For the second paragraph, though, I’m at a bit of a loss. Maybe I misunderstood @bjoern when he explained to me how we’re going to pitch our concept to potential investors. What would the first step look like, then?
Regarding the transparency issue, it seems I need a bit of a refresher on what companies will actually have to show us to get access to user data. If the info is somewhere in this forum, please provide me with a link.
Sorry for not giving feedback sooner. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure that this is not the way I would like us to go. I did not want to give negative feedback without being able to suggest an alternative approach, because I really appreciate your initiative and you may even be right in the end.
But: I need some more time to come up with a better input, as we are still in the process of shaping the funding campaign. And as it looks now, that will take another month. I had hoped for faster progress, but things are the way they are.
So I would suggest slowing down activities here until we have more clarity on the funding campaign.