Blockchain​ To Safeguard Privacy From Social Media Sites

Blockchain​ To Safeguard Privacy From Social Media Sites

Blockchain News News
December 18, 2019 by Editor's Desk
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In this increasingly digitized world, people are molded into users, while their identities are transformed into user data. It is a process that’s greatly stimulated by social media giants like Facebook and Google. These companies connect billions of users from all across the globe. They enable them to build their pages, post pictures, and status
Blockchain

In this increasingly digitized world, people are molded into users, while their identities are transformed into user data. It is a process that’s greatly stimulated by social media giants like Facebook and Google.

These companies connect billions of users from all across the globe. They enable them to build their pages, post pictures, and status updates and connect with their friends and family. 

The users, in return, agree to provide necessary details about themselves like full name, phone number, and email address.

 This is undoubtedly the social media era we breathe in; there are still some concerns that occur with those platforms.

Biggest Facebook Scandal

In 2018, the company was caught in a fierce scandal known as ‘Cambridge Analytica.’ Cambridge Analytica is a British political consulting firm that accumulates voters’ data all around the world and then produces various electoral projects with its partners.

In March, an ex-Cambridge employee dripped the files that embraced tens of millions of Facebook users and their private data. Facebook traded the data to Cambridge Analytica to examine their electoral behaviors, and probably influence them.

The scandal was a watershed moment for everyone, besides for Facebook itself. The company was conscious of this practice, which was revealed by a whistleblower.

 Identity and marketable data the same?

This shows how social media giants use our private data. When setting up an account, they inform us that any detail about us can be used for marketing purposes and that we’re comfortable with this practice. There is no detachment between our identity and the real traffic that we generate on the platform.

Blockchain Technology as a savior

While social media companies don’t care about this dichotomy, its case isn’t precisely hopeless. Blockchain offers a more differentiated privacy policy platform with its decentralized platform and peer-to-peer connections. It compartmentalizes our private and marketable data. It gives us the capacity to make money by providing the latter with various companies.

Blockchain-powered platforms prioritize their users and their choices. Blockchain is a peer-to-peer network, indicating users themselves make every platform-wide decision. Hence, democracy is much more common in the decision-making process.

Users can exchange data on their own

On a blockchain, users create their accounts, knowing that they can efficiently separate the two types of data and make further use of each of them. Not only can they defend what needs to be protected using one of the most potent encryption mechanisms, but they can also make money out of trading the marketable data to various entities.

In the case of Facebook or other social media websites, we provide all of our data to the company without any monetary benefit. Facebook alleges that this occurs so that it can provide free and quality service to its users. But this is an entirely antiquated and even misleading statement in a time when blockchain efficiently gets rid of intermediaries.

Since it’s a decentralized platform, there’s no requirement to have an arbitrator who administers the deals and contracts between the two parties. If you want to take your data and sell it to a marketing company, you can do that without any help from intermediaries. This allows for the lower costs and direct incomes to us in return for our traffic data.

Control over Privacy

All this represents the benefits of blockchain technology. But not the blockchain that Facebook plans to use for Libra. Instead, a decentralized ledger with peer-to-peer relations can help us regain control over our private data.

Not only that, blockchain will enable us to monetize our marketable data ourselves instead of letting third parties interrupt and make money from it.

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