#thepeoplesinternet

[talkfusionwahm]

The People Are Taking Back Control Of The Internet - http://www.ruralincome.com/184641/This-Is-The-Peoples-Internet.htm

[ernestbruce]

Data Transfer Project

Data Transfer Project (DTP) allows people to move their data and content from one platform to another. in other words, it lets one company cede control of one person’s data and content to another company. it seems to be an innovative and straight-forward way for companies to adapt to an increasingly regulated digital landscape (California’s Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation). except, it isn’t. what it is is a solution to the wrong problem.

what this “solution” does is maintain the hegemony of the big personal-data and personal-content brokers (companies such as Facebook and Twitter). if Google (DTP’s author) viewed the world from the perspective of a person living a digital life on the internet —instead of it’s mandate to make profits for its owners and to provide its real customers with its merchandize— the real problem would’ve been obvious: people need full control over their personal data and content, and they need that data and content stored in one place.

DTP reinforces the view that personal data belongs to and should be controlled by Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, and similar companies, not the data subject, the person whose data these companies use to make humongous profits. this data-ownership model is outdated. we need a new model.

in the new model, where personal data and content are controlled by the data owners, if i decide to “move” from Twitter to Mastodon, or from Facebook to Google Plus, i won’t need to transfer anything. all i would need to do is revoke Twitter’s or Facebook’s authorization to access my personal store. and that, given how these two have behaved, would feel really good.