2 simple changes you can make to opt out of tech giants mass data collection schemes (and get paid for it).
The Intro:
Like a twisted 2021 version of George Orwell’s dystopian book 1982, over the last few years, we’ve seen company’s like Facebook and Twitter used as a platform to spread hate, propaganda, and fake news in calculated attempts at mass manipulation — all using our personal data to target us with content we are most likely to engage with.
The controversial reality is that most of the tech giants like Facebook, Google, and Twitter seem to think your data rightfully belongs to them. What’s worse is that in the eyes of the law, these Corporations are deemed innocent.
They claim we knowingly agreed to sell our data in exchange for the free use of their platforms, but in actuality, they failed to disclose critical details that affected our decision-making process in the first place. What data were they collecting on us, what exactly were they doing with our data and who were they selling our data to — None of this was transparently disclosed.
Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash
Thankfully Innovation runs deep in the evolution of civilization. Where there is a problem, there’s usually someone working on a solution nearby. Today I’ll be covering 2 unique projects, each working to restore your privacy in innovative ways.
The Innovation:
1 — Brave Software launched the first version of its Brave web browser in 2016. Now with over 34 million users, the Brave browser provides a significant step in the right direction when it comes to data collection, advertising, and general privacy online. By default, Brave automatically blocks online advertisements and website trackers. All user data is kept private on the user’s device and is not accessible by any third party.
All of this has been a huge step in the right direction when it comes to privacy online, but after some public pressure in February 2021, Brave decided to go one step further by routing DNS requests through the TOR network to avoid Internet Service Provider’s having knowledge of user’s browsing sessions, a huge win for users in the war against privacy invasion.
Photo by Tobias Tullius on Unsplash
2 — Presearch, a Decentralized organization, has taken a different approach to web privacy by creating a Decentralized Search Engine. Presearch is a community-driven project with over 1.3 million registered users, where users can participate through various means to maintain and grow the project.
The Presearch source code is built by member contributions and runs entirely on blockchain node servers operated by community members. The decentralized nature of Presearch makes all search completely anonymous as it does not track your location or store your searches, with every search processed as an anonymous query to the network of node servers. Not too different from Bitcoin Miners contributing to secure the Bitcoin Blockchain Network, anyone can run a Presearch Node and earn rewards in the Presearch Native Token “PRE.”
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Though running a Node is not the only way to earn PRE tokens, in fact, looking further into the tokenomics of PRE, it is clear they serve to grow the value of PRE and the Presearch network, benefitting the entire community. User’s of the Presearch Engine are rewarded in cryptocurrency for each search they make using Presearch (capped at 30 search rewards per day).
Additionally, advertisers can buy and then stake (lock-up) PRE tokens in a bid to have their ad displayed when a user searches on the term selected. As the network grows, more Users and Nodes on the network will likely equate to more selling pressure of the PRE token on the open market, however, the buying demand and value of Presearch will increase simultaneously as advertisers competitively bid for exposure to a growing audience. PRE’s token value is (in theory) directly determined by the fundamental value of its community — A “Network Deterministic Value” proposition I think we are likely to see as a growing trend in an array of sectors in the coming decade.
Summary:
Providing a useful internet service and making it financially sustainable will always come with difficulties, especially when there is constant temptation to trade ethics for profits. In a post-pandemic world with ever-increasing concerns of privacy invasion, authoritarianism, and abuse of power, the rise of services like Brave and Presearch on the internet provides a well-needed dose of optimism for the future.
Photo by Chris Yang on Unsplash
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2 Steps To Reclaim Your Online Privacy was originally published in The Capital on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
