And why does almost all of its value flow to just a few places in the world?

In this editorial, our CEO explores one of the most uncomfortable truths of the digital age.

According to ChatGPT 50% of its own value is derived from data, whilst the other 50% is it’s ability to string the data together and as it corrected me, it is so much more than just stringing information together. It is self-enhancing, correcting, reasoning and soooo much more.

Still, the stubborn me believes that data are at the heart of it and with all the fancy words not even ChatGPT can convince me otherwise.

Now the big question is where is that data coming from and the answer is as obvious as it is unsettling: You.

You, the User of the myriad of devices who has fed seemingly “free” applications and services for years, sometimes decades. The old adage holds true: If it is free, you are the product.

Now the funny thing and the thing I find mind-bogglingly irritating is that everyone knows this and only slowly people start to care. Primarily the digital natives who are realizing what an unbelievable mess we have made of everything. 

Whilst we are still deciding whether the data monster we have created (And BTW I myself am a frequent user) is going to kill all of us, or be the new Messiah, to whom we willingly hand over our future, our health, our jobs, our economies and all power to the few who are smart enough to monetise the information we are creating and the data we share.

Why do I care? Well, I believe in the beauty of balance. Everything should be balanced, no matter whether it is the food you eat, the life you live, or the power people, nations, or corporations possess.
At this point in time we have a severe imbalance. Data is being generated around the World, but the monetisation happens primarily in the USA. Having earned some of my stripes at the MIT, I do not mind that those businesses reside in the US, but I do mind that there are no such companies in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, or India for example. Only about 4% of the World’s population live in the US, but the percentage of GDP is about 26%. India in comparison owns 3.5% of the global GDP, but has 18% of its population. So 1% in the US equals 6.5%, whereas in India 1% comes to 0.19%, meaning the US owns THIRTYFOUR times the value. Granted GDP is something that gets produced and therefore one can argue that there is also work that goes into its creation, but this is only a part of the story. Data from India does get monetised in the US. Facebook for example is being used by about 46% of the Indian population and its adoption is growing with the increasing availability of mobiles and better connection throughout the sub-continent.

This is food for thought. Please do take a moment and reflect on the above. Imbalance is never good and in this case it is severe.

If we can believe AIs own predictions, there are only a few more years where this even matters, as personal data will become widely predictable and estimates will be increasingly accurate without the need for permission. Privacy will be a thing of the past, as the bits and pieces of public information we are sharing will allow AI to largely come to its own conclusions, whilst we are trying to make sense of it. And let’s not fool ourselves, the few law-makers and politicians who understand the magnitude of those developments are eying a nice seat on an advisory board of one of those businesses. Therefore it will be down to the public and to the responsible companies to act and to change the game.

To change it, there are two main streams of data which need to be owned and monetised nearer to the source:

1. Communication; If you look at most businesses, the internal, as well as most of the external communication happens on Teams, Google Meet, Facebook, WhatsApp, or Slack and more than 90% of those services are being provided cloud-.based. But even if you are using these applications “on premises” no one can tell me that there is 100% privacy.  If you want to stay in control of your own data, you need to run your own tool on your own, or at least local, infrastructure. The second best alternative, if you don’t have the resources to develop your own tool at hand, is to use a regulatory compliant, open-source solution which you host yourself. This way you can analyse the code, review changes, lock down any ports, get security right and ultimately become the creator of your own destiny again with complete privacy in mind. The same applies to individuals at a lesser degreee, but still the options where to communicate should be thoroughly analysed and consumers should remind companies that there are alternatives to WhatsApp, or Zoom.
   
2. Payments; The second big area is the whole payment space. Interestingly companies are only just waking up to the idea that customers information is valuable and marketable insights can be derived by analysing patterns and data points. Currently payment systems are owned by Apple, Visa, MasterCard, AliPay, Discover, SWIFT and a few smaller ones. None of those rails are owned or managed by European, Middle Eastern, or Indian companies. There is a promising initiative under way which is still somewhat in stealth, but we are part of a team working hard on a solution.

Finally Healthcare Data is often underestimated in its value and the need to protect the privacy of individuals is understood but ignored. Data Processors are collecting information from Doctors around the World and never have I seen any patient being asked whether they are ok with thier health data to be distributed. On the other hand I have witnessed industrial scale data breaches and announced them to the relevant authorities, but as you may have guessed to no avail.

All of the above means that we are continuing to feed the moloch that is the new AI without being rewarded, or even asked, entirely sacrificing any privacy. The only way we can change this, is by consciously making choices in terms of what tools we are using, informing ourselves on how to use those and supporting alternatives which exist today. Sometimes it takes a village to raise a child, in this case it takes countries and continents that need to come together to raise awareness and support projects such as the one we are working on. 

The way forward to regain control over our information is clearly to own our data funnels. Everything where data is essential (Communications), required to operate the system (AI), or generating value (Payments) needs privacy, checks and balances none of which we currently have.

Because of that, we have created solutions that are helping companies and individuals on their path to independent ownership and privacy again. We are starting with communication and alternative payment rails now. You can choose between our hosted services, which are all fully GDPR, DORA and Data Protection compliant, or ask for the code from us to install it yourself.

I’m, very proud that my team and I have, during the past 4 years, created a privacy first alternative to Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, WhatsApp, Slack, WordPress, or immersive tools such as Roblox, or Spatial. Together with us the resistance against data theft is rising. More and more providers are developing data ethics as they start to understand that economically and socially sustainable businesses can not be built on the ignorance of its users, but rather their participation and also financial involvement.

Join me,… join us on our quest to take back control and let’s do this now before we have no more chance to turn back the clock.

#privacyfirst #securecomms #unytedwestand