Data is intimate
John Battelle, the author of the book “The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture” in which he refers to Google as a “database of intentions” , goes even further in his article “ On Small, Intimate Data ” . “Small” also means very “intimate” to him: “To me, small means limited, intimate, and actionable by individuals. […] It's intimate in that it's data that matters a lot to each of us […] And should we choose to share a small amount of intimate data with the cloud, it's important that the cloud understands the nature of that data as distinct from its masses of Big Data.”
Evolution of information
Interesting in this context is also the evolution that information has undergone. In the Gartner report “ Strategic Information Management for Competitive Advantage ” analyst Mark Raskino shows a simple timeline of the information age. It is striking that data is becoming increasingly personal or intimate over time.
Andrew Keen warns in his article “ How the digital blob feasts on our intimate data israel telegram data about the downside of all this intimate data. He sees social networks as a malignant virus that gorges itself on our personal information. This virus destroys our privacy: “There's a trillion dollar virus that is spreading throughout Silicon Valley right now. It's called social networking. This virus, a relentless kind of digital blob, feeds on our most intimate data. The bigger a social network becomes, the greedier it becomes for our data and the more it invades our lives, voraciously feeding off our friendships and destroying our privacy.”
Insufficient control over own data
Users currently have no control over their data. They have completely lost ownership of their data. Of course, a countermovement has been set in motion. The first step seems to be to provide consumers with more insight into what data they give up for the use of a service. Google has set up the Data Liberation Front for this purpose and even Facebook offers the possibility to submit a request where users can download a file with (part of) their own data. A month ago, the initiative “ App.net ” was also started on Kickstarter, a kind of Twitter, but without advertisements. The article “ Here's Why People Are Backing App.net ” explains why people are investing in this initiative. The main reason is that in App.net the control is in the hands of the individual.