Privacy on Web 3.0 — Heaven or Pitfall?

Imagine a world in which a government that engaged in illegal medical experiments on its citizens, deposed foreign governments, and regularly lied about the wars it started is the same entity that would leave the internet to develop on its own. Does that seem like a plausible scenario?

In fact, the internet itself was a creation of the US security apparatus that was developed by one of the projects under the auspices of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Once the internet became commercialized, it didn’t take long for the Intelligence Community (IC) to take an extra step via the MDDS project — Massive Digital Data Systems.

The goal of MDDS was to make IC more efficient at managing data as commercial products grew more complex and diversified. Some MDDS grants ended up in the hands of Sergey Brin and Larry Page — the co-founders of Google. Today, Google is an ecosystem of its own, into which almost everyone using the World Wide Web is plugged.

Google serves you with geo-location services, email, storage, cloud and work sharing, video content, and a smartphone OS.

In short, it is the ideal framework for mass tracking. Unfortunately, companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon do not simply track and funnel this data to IC.

Given the fact that 90% of searches are conducted by Google, the internet ‘behemoth’ goes to great lengths to manipulate what can be searched and what is findable, in other words, what is thought about.

Not only does it engage in blacklisting and manipulative algorithm tweaking, but Google also has dedicated interference programs called Moonshot CVE and Jigsaw to intercept opinions that are not 100% in sync with establishment views.

The surveillance recipe always starts the same — frame projects as “combating online hate” — until the space for allowable opinions is as tiny as space within two sides of a trash compactor.

Security Breaches are of the Least Concern

It is no secret that Big Tech weaponizes private data so it can plug it into other projects that are not as benign-sounding as “marketing”. The latter serves to gather vast quantities of data on behavioral patterns and psychological traits between different age groups, sexes, ethnicities and races. After all, such data would enable Big Tech to be more efficient in making a value proposition for businesses.

As early as 2012, Facebook ran an experiment in which they attempted to manipulate readers’ emotions based on News Feeds. In the era of total information lockdown and consolidated corporate control, where everything can become a subject of misinformation and fake fact-checking, Big Tech has become more of a threat to how we use the internet than ever.

While it is true that the internet giants control massive amounts of data, which is often subject to security breaches, this represents a minimal risk in the grand scheme of things. It is one thing to leverage private data for corporate gains and then occasionally leak it, but of more importance is the threat to the values upon which the modern Western civilization was built— free speech and intellectual inquiry.

Web 3.0 as More Than a Privacy Remedy

Blockchain has paved the way for decentralized data, as manifested by one of its hugely successful implementations in the form of Bitcoin (BTC) cryptocurrency. The same can be accomplished for private data, now largely under Big Tech control. Under the Weparadigmb 3.0, blockchain database protocols like Filecoin are poised to decentralize and encrypt online data.

Filecoin (FIL) spiked 377% in value in March, based on the promise of decentralized storage.

This would not only guard against security breaches as a result of there being no single point of failure, but it would also level the power imbalance between users and service providers. When your data is not controlled by a single entity but directly plugged into other platforms via blockchain, you gain ownership of it.

Simultaneously, you deny its usage for social engineering and thought-policing that you never signed up for, while maintaining the safety of your personal data as an extra bonus.

Given that corporations are now fused with governments under the ESG paradigm, Web 3.0 would also enable platforms to be built that are resilient to de-platforming.

This can range from decentralized web-hosting and payment mechanisms to blockchain social platforms like Steemit or video sharing platforms like DTube or Odysee.

Blockchain as a Double-Edged Sword

Based on existing projects that can serve as the foundation of Web 3.0 — Filecoin, OpenBazaar, Textile Photos, Graphite Docs, and many others — it is easy to see how blockchain can be used to decentralize every aspect of online activity.

By the same token, a problem arises when developers are not incentivized to further develop Web 3.0 projects due to gray regulatory areas.

Specifically, a new project would have to be created in order to cover requests for changing information stored on a blockchain or determine jurisdiction for decentralized data, just to name a few regulatory hurdles.

Moreover, is it likely that governments would enact a regulatory framework that prioritizes user privacy and liberties? If we base our projections on the current trends, it would be a safer bet that blockchain would be used for creating official citizen IDs, which would then be used:

1. To access the internet
2. To access various domains on the internet
3. To access government services — voting, licensing, residency, taxes, education, healthcare, etc.
4. To access payment services

After all, blockchain can be made either immutable and transparent or immutable and private, as demonstrated by the difference between Bitcoin (BTC) and Monero (XMR). In the Swiss city Zug, blockchain IDs are already in the works for access to online voting.

One could easily envision a scenario in which blockchain makes private data secure from breaches while also making user activity transparent to whichever designated authority wants to take a look.

Imagine posting something that someone, somewhere, didn’t like. With enough leverage, blockchain transparency and immutability can be used to track that post all the way to its source. Two years ago, a public health paper titled “Strengthening public health surveillance through blockchain technology” cites many examples of weaponizing blockchain for surveillance.

If it can be done for public health, it can be done for any other area of life. And if it can be done, it most likely will be.