Time For Us To Own Our Data - And Trade It


The cat and mouse game between Big Internet and Big Government over who tracks you more is probably a neverending saga.

Big Government is peeved that Big Internet is generally better at these things due to better engagement (big clue to Government about what they should do, duh! How about running networks for the communities and societies you govern!)

And the introduction of GDPR legislation in the EU has just resulted in ever more riddiculous 'I agree' popups with no real increased protection of personal privacy or data. It's just an inconvenient addition to a stupid game.

Let's reverse that.

If a browser, website or app wants my data, they have to obtain it from mybot - my own data bank. If they want it for free, they should tell me why. If they want to bid for it, so be it.

The idea that agreeing to ever longer legal documents is the basis for stealing your personal data is absurd and the EU, as ever, has totally screwed up their legislation, even with the best of intentions, when introducing GDPR.

I hope that, post Brexit, the UK will become the first country to enable all of its citizens to hold their data in their own wallet (a 'mybot' as I call it) and require anyone wishing to access this information to obtain specific permission for this, not for dropping cookies or server tracking. If you want my address you ask for it amnd this is logged in mybot (blockchain-like technology may be very good at this), if you want my telephone number, that involves a separate request, tracking how I use your app is yet another request, as is logging my location. At any point, provided I have not accepted payment, I should be able to go and delete this data forever.

At the same time, let's tax use of this data, to replace out of date taxes such as rates or VAT which are driving high street businesses to the wall.

It's really not that complicated.