User privacy - a problem in web2 with solutions in web3

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If you are afraid that your data is secretly being collected by a website of a social media platform, your fears are well understood. You might be aware though that a particular service is collecting your personal data, but how sure are we that they will keep it confidential? The issue of abusing or misusing personal data is a well-established challenge in web2 and that need to be addressed quickly.

If you use the internet, chances are that some website or online platforms is tracking and collecting your personal data. In this presentation, we will see how that happens and how web3 is effectively solving the many issues of privacy that we see today.

Web2 Privacy issues - your personal data is in danger

The first step towards protecting your personal data and ensuring your privacy is intact is to first of all understand how your data is being harvested online. Then you could take precautionary steps to stay safe.

Below are some ways that websites, social media platforms and other web2 frameworks collect data.

1. Digital footprint: As you browse the internet, you leave some data which websites and big corporations managing these platforms collect and save. Such data may be related to the choices you make as you use the internet. For example, your digital footprint includes the websites you frequently visit, the social media platforms you use, the demographics of your followers, etc.

You digital footprint might still include your map location data, your browsing history, and even the payments you make online for purchases. So when these web2 project owners collect personal data from your digital footprint, they are able to build a unique online profile of you and this data is so valuable that advertisers are willing to pay so much for it.

2. Online cookies: Almost every website use it. They make you accept the use of cookies on each webpage. Cookies are used by websites to collect user data which could give a clue into the choices and behavious of the user on the platform. While cookies might serve to enhance a more personalized experience, it is all too often used as a tool for online profiling.

Imagine a website with thousands of unique visitors collecting these personally identifying data from all of them. It would be so difficult not to monetize such data. These large corporations often build user profiles and sell them to advertisers. So sometimes when you start receiving many unsolicited mails from advertisers, you probably know where they are coming from.

3. Social media: Perhaps one of the places where people give out more data than they are aware of it. Social media platforms are often the breading ground for data collection. Starting from the moment you click the sign up link, your personal data such as name, phone number, and other things are requested. At the end of the day, you hand over your personal data to them without caring so much about how they will use such data.

Many users of social media are not so careful with the amount of personal data they share online. Anything sent through a social media platform stays there forever. Even when you delete them, there are still copies in the database. So the care-free use of social media is another.

4. Agreeing to terms without reading it: Another way you could actually sign your privacy death warrant is by not reading user terms before agreeing to them. Many online users have made this mistake. Of course, the web2 platform owners knowingly make complex terms document. These documents may span many pages of the screen. In a world where everyone is in a hurry, few have the time or patience to read terms documents. They just just click agree. And finish up. This is very wrong.

By agreeing to terms that you did not read or not well understood, you are effectively handing over your privacy and collection of personal data over to the web2 platform. You might agree to the collection and commercialization of your personal data without knowing it.

The following are a few of the many ways that privacy is endangered on web2 websites and social media platforms. Now let us look at how web3 is solving the privacy issues identified above.

Web3 solution to privacy issues.

By design, web3 is built on the concept of decentralization. The main technology that drives web3 is blockchain technology which is a distributed ledger that stores that stores data across many different nodes in an immutable fashion. Blockchain technology uses advanced cryptographic technology to encrypt data, allowing only the user that has the keys to have access to it.

Using blockchains and their decentralized designs, web3 overcomes privacy issues in the following ways.

1. Anonymous transactions: Web3 transactions powered by blockchain technology is usually anonymous. That means that the details of the users performing the transaction are usually hidden. For example, a crypto wallet address is made up of characters that hide the real identities of the transacting parties. As such, it becomes very difficult to know the true identity of those involved in the transaction.

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Because of the anonymous nature of transactions on the blockchain, it is very difficult for anyone to make sense of whatever they could gather as private data because it is anything but private.

3. Community governance: Web2 platforms are usually governed by a company board which makes all the decisions about data collection and use. They usually do not share decision-making with the ordinary users on the platform. But web3 uses a different approach to decision-making.

Projects built on web3 are usually governed by the users - stakeholders. By involving almost everyone in the decision making process, web3 projects ensure that everyone's view counts. The transparency of the whole decision-making process ensures that users not only have their say, but they are also informed of how their data would be collected by the project and used. This ensures that users do not agree to some misleading service terms that steal their data. Instead, they clearly understand the privacy structure and assurances of the project. They naturally would not agree to a decision that will endanger their privacy.

4. Decentralized storage: Web2 projects store user data on web servers. Some store on the cloud. These servers are controlled and owned by individuals. As such, data stored in it is basically owned by the company or project managing it. This could lead to endangering privacy. Web2 databases are centralized. But web3 is really different.

In web3, data is stored across a distributed network of computers. This ensures that there is no single point of failure. These networks are maintained by individuals around the world following the consensus algorithm of the network. Because of the distributed nature of web3 data, no single person has control or full ownership of the data except the owner who has the private keys.

Blockchain data is also immutable in nature. This means that no one can change, edit or delete data stored on the blockchain. This ensures not only the protection of the user privacy, but also the integrity of the data stored is effectively guaranteed. Decentralized storage is a cool way to tackle the issue of user privacy.

Conclusion

Web2 was designed with zero privacy in mind. Websites and social media platforms continue to collect and monetize user data everyday. But secretly and openly, your privacy is being endangered. Web3 offers far more reliable privacy protection with blockchain technology. Transactions are anonymous, and users do not need to provide many personal data to sign up. So if you wish to stay protected more, web3 is the answer.

Posted Using LeoFinance Alpha