MAD HATTERS MadHatters Birthday Issue
Exactly one year ago, we said we need a special kind of magazine, one that is centred around us as digital citizens, our personal data and how we interact online. It was not only to build a community of people who cared, but also to inform one another and learn together.
INSIDE THIS ISSUE Who is SHE? Introducing the Smart HAT Engine HAT Innovation Class of 2017 HAT in WIRED!
Plus lots more December 2017
Bringing you MADHATTERs each week... Anna DeWolf, Managing Editor
Too often what we hear in the news is either over hyped, scare mongering or biased towards some agenda or another, leaving out necessary details. So we started MadHAT-
I source the weekly tech news, edit, and put MadHATTERs together. It is also my job to keep an eye on Leila, just in case she does anything too wild...
TERs. When we curate the news in this space, you will notice that we won’t hold back the punches, if indeed punches are needed. But we aim to explain the complexity as well. Because most news of this nature isn’t always straightforward. And often, because we have academic roots, we try to also explain why certain things happen the way they have, perhaps with a little snide humour thrown in. Have we achieved it? I think we have, but you, wonderful reader, is always the judge and the jury. We may not always get it right – with our slightly flippant if not snarky attitude to telling the news – probably because we don’t believe any news is objective and since it’s us telling it, we might as well tell you our biases! The first issue of MadHATTERs laid that bare:
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We’re totally biased – towards personal data and digital empowerment, greater control, privacy, security, confidentiality and freedom. But we are pro-innovation, pro-economy; yes, some problems are complex, and there are many tensions, but all need innovation!
I report on what’s going on in the HAT universe each week. Anything to say to MadHATTERs? Get in touch: jonathan.holtby@hatcommunity.org
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We still have much more to do and MadHATTERs will be shape shifting quite a bit in 2018 (starting with a brand new look), so stay with us and enjoy the ride y’all!
Leila Trilby
MadHATTERs Editor-in-chief
Jonathan Holtby, Community Manager
Leila Trilby, Editor-in-chief But who is Leila? No one knows for sure. Leila says: “I am the Stig...”
Events in London, Cambridge & Singapore
location
Here’s Irene’s article in full: THERE WERE SIGNIFICANT PRIVACY VIOLATIONS in 2017: DeepMind’s controversial data-sharing deal with the NHS; Facebook’s 110 million (£98m) fine; Google’s 2.4 billion fine; scammers selling personal data. We woke up to the idea that a few big companies, such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and WeChat, had used our data to become near-monopolistic entities. In 2018, EU regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation and the second Payment Services Directive will give consumers new rights and change their power relationships with these companies. And new technology such as private-data accounts will help us acquire, use and share our data for our own benefit.
HAT in Wired! Wired listed its predictions for 2018’s major digital trends, and Irene Ng is in the lineup talking HAT, private data accounts and revolutionising the internet.
Irene Ng / Nick D Burton / Wired © The Condé Nast Publications Ltd.
Private-data accounts are like individual bank accounts, but they contain personal information, not money. Hosted by data stores such as people. io, Cozy.io, digi.me and the Hub of All Things, of which I am the founder and chairman, many will let us legally own our own data, bringing it in and pushing it out as we wish, without our having to identify ourselves. And they will do this automatically or at the touch of a button. Inside these accounts,
our data will become our asset, one to which we can give specific access rights in return for services. This will flip today’s internet (in which we give up all of this data in return for access to services) on its head. A new generation of apps and websites will arise that use private-data accounts instead of conventional user
accounts. Internet applications in 2018 will attach themselves to these, gaining access to a smart data account rich with privately held contextual information such as stress levels (combining sleep patterns, for example, with how busy a user’s calendar is) or motivation to exercise (comparing historical exercise patterns to infer about the day ahead). All of this will be possible without the burden on the app supplier of undue sensitive data liability or any violation of consumers’ personal rights. It will also be possible to gather future data. For example, organisations and governments will be able to offer benefits for future digital actions such as reducing energy use (future energy data), or taking more exercise (future Fitbit data). Assuming the data can be validated (and there are many blockchain applications ready to do this), the incentivisation of digital action fulfilled through data exchanges will create a new capability on the internet that is as big as the invention of video streaming in the 90s. Such incentivisation has always been possible at an app level. Fitbit encourages us to work towards our exercise goals. However, the game changer is that private-data accounts will allow this to happen across all data and all apps. New apps are already being built to leverage this new capability. Shape\ Influence, a startup on the Hub of All Things’ private-data account, enables merchants to directly “buy” influence by offering benefits for tweets, posts and reviews (future data) from all of us, not just celebrities. The more we share data on our terms, the more the internet will evolve to emulate the physical domain where private spaces, commercial spaces and community spaces can exist separately, but side by side. Indeed, private-data accounts may be the first step towards the internet as a civil society, paving the way for a governing system where digital citizens, in the form of their private micro-server data account, do not merely have to depend on legislation to champion their private rights, but also have the economic power to enforce them as well. Paradoxically, the internet will become more private at a moment when we individuals begin to exchange more data. We will then wield a collective economic power that could make 2018 the year we rebalance the digital economy.
Introducing the Smart HAT Engine! WE’VE ROLLED OUT a feature this month, probably the most significant feature of the HAT dashboard yet.
The SHE Feed. Backtrack, what
on earth is SHE?
SHE is the Smart HAT Engine. The part of your HAT that does computation and analytics. The part of your HAT that can analyse all your data privately with pre-trained analytics and algorithms, and then outputs the results only into your HAT. SHE Feed is the feed on your private HAT dashboard or iOS app, giving you insights about your data. SHE’s first words to you are to congratulate you on your HAT. Not very smart. But when you’re just born, who is? As we start developing and iterating on SHE, new SHE functions will appear that you can subscribe to. We want to encourage the smartest and the brightest data scientists and algorithmists to start working with us, by putting some great functions on SHE, some paid, some for fun. It’s the route to market for all you smart people with smart ML algorithms – you don’t need to wait for a corporation to buy it – you could sell it – to us! From daily insights, to helping us make good decisions, SHE functions can help us plan the future, act in the present and learn about ourselves. The HAT and SHE are fully private but SHE insights can be shared as a data points, if we wish, like all data on the HAT.
A (very) brief chat with Andrius and Irene – creators of the SHE feed.
Over time, our SHE Feeds will become meaningful private spaces that we control ourselves. Our feeds today on Facebook or Twitter are hugely influenced by others, and our searches return a feed set by Google. With SHE, we will have control to set what we want to see in our feeds, whether it’s personalised articles, detailed health analytics, or photos shared by family members. It’s kind of nice to have a feed we can control ourselves. Truly just me, myself and AI.
What SHE said?
Irene: It’s a surprise. Irene: Yes.
Andrius: I’m so sure If someone has a we will regret this. trained machineWho coined it? learning algorithm, how fast would it Andrius: NOT ME. go on the engine? Irene:... What kinds of SHE functions will be available in the new year? Andrius: It’s a surprise.
Andrius: A month to scope, a month to code, a month to test, approximately. Irene: Yesterday. Andrius: No.
So... Me, Myself and AI? Andrius: AGAIN, NOT ME. Irene: I wanted Me, Myself and Irene, but I hear that’s already a movie.
OUR PERSONAL DATA are like
databases is much like downloading
lumps of carbon in the ground, and
our own data, implying that we are get-
an entire industry has spawned
ting our data back as part of subject ac-
to mine, ship, cut, and sell them
cess, not as a third party service API re-
as diamonds. But it’s important
quest. So we did that too. That makes
to remember that this economic
us data controllers and data subjects.
value chain does not come with moral judgement. Businesses do what they can, what is legal and
We created an API cloud-based plat-
what gets them ahead. Personal
form to give app makers, marketers
data gets them ahead. It is also
and researchers a real time supply
important to remember that if
of PPD, so that PPD can rival OPD by
we want economic power from
creating wealth all along the economic
our own data, we want them to
value chain from creation to analy-
work with us, and not against us.
sis, productisation to consumption.
There are 2 items in our favour. First,
Finally, we need to make PPD a better
personal data we are the ones at the
asset. This we do in three ways. First,
source – the raw material supply. It is
by breaking down all the data in a HAT
co-produced with the organisations
so it can be sliced and diced in order
that have the technology to collect it,
to be packaged any way we want. For
no doubt, but we are still the source
example, a person will (probably) never
of the supply. Second, at the demand
be willing to share their location all of
end, we are the ones who consume
the time, but they may well be willing
the services that feed on personal
to share their anonymised location
data. Whether it’s watching ads,
between 7–9am during the week in or-
or searching or reading our feeds.
der to get coffee deals on the way to
and the end, we have no control over the chain or the market that has emerged. So what can we do? Let’s call the data which organisations hold
Organisation-controlled
Per-
sonal Data, OPD. All the data sloshing
It’s simple. Give them their data. We’re trapped in an organisationcontrolled model, and we must move to a person-controlled model to unlock the value of the individual.
That’s what the HATDeX platform does.
at the supply end; as the generators of
Yet, even if we are the beginning
Creating a more valuable digital citizen
Third, the economics.
about is OPD, and of course there is only OPD to speak of. The entire economic value chain is not really an economic value chain of personal data, it’s an economic value chain of OPD. What if we had an new supply in the ecosystem: PPD – Person-controlled Personal Data. But how do you get PPD?
First the technology. Personal microservers, with a dedicated database just for our own data
work without any identifiers. This way, data becomes much more flexible, and more palatable to share. Secondly, we created the ability for the platform to take on personal AI. The idea being that personal AI (trained algorithms) can then analyse our HAT data, but will output the results back into our own HATs for us to experience, learn from, and share if we with. It’s not only PPD that is shareable, it’s PPD insights through that AI. Third, the platform affords the ability to exchange PPD futures. Essentially, the ability to share data that has not be created yet. Challenges can be created to exchange data only if the user then meets that challenge: run a marathon with Fitbit tomorrow, for example, or spend
would be a start. These would be de-
less next week, or use 10% less water.
signed in such a way that data can
Pretty cool, we think. So with a HAT,
be pulled and pushed in and out of
and our PPD, we become a more
the database using cloud microser-
valuable digital citizen. Don’t forget,
vices. So we built the HAT for that.
mining our own PPD doesn’t de-
Second, the law.
prive the organisation of that data.
We designed the tech to emulate everything an organisation would do to be a data controller, so that we can be one as well. Bringing OPD into our cloud
We can both have it. Through APIs, our HAT microservers can start pulling OPD into our HATs, transforming OPD to PPD. Let’s go claim it!
World Around Me helps you connect with your environment using AR With CEO Tarun Sainani MadHATTERs: So could you tell me about World Around Me? Tarun Sainani: World Around Me is a local discovery app which helps you find places of interest: places to eat, drink, pray, shop, find health services, ATMs, wherever they are in the world, by using their phone camera. Instead of using a map, where people can struggle to take the first step in the right direction, people can orientate using their phone camera. It’s now being used in over 20 countries, and it was the winner of the Google Play award last year. Which is a big thing for a small team like ours. MH: Absolutely, it’s amazing. TS: So WAM has a B2C side, but we also have a B2B model where we’ve built a city platform, through which we enable tourism boards and city councils to push content like local events. And that comes into the WAM app through the geofencing technology. So lets say if you downloaded WAM on your phone right now, and you went to Genoa, who are our partners, you would see a new section called ‘Discover Genoa’ with an events category. MH: I can imagine that could be really
cool on a hyperlocal level, say for a university or a festival. TS: I agree, lots of discovery content can be set up on a local level. The way we designed the platform, we can customise it with other kinds of content, for example, we’ve been discussing with the city of Paris around them actually listing heritage locations. And you mentioned festivals – as long as it’s an open air event, because of the GPS and the technology constraints. We were talking recently with a group in India who had planted these beautiful trees, and these are trees that they want people to know about. So we were thinking, we could create a discover trees section in WAM, so people can actually educate themselves about the environment around them. So that’s another spin on it. MH: How does an AR experience translate into personal data that is valuable to the individual? TS: For us, AR has been an enabler for people who struggle using maps. AR provides a discovery experience in
the camera, where the fact that you can help people get a sense of direction, especially in a place which is very walkable, that’s very valuable, and it creates a relationship with the environment that they’re in. So we saw these two things as our driving forces as to why we should focus on the camera discovery. Now where the personal data bit comes in is when people are actually adding information about their own places and also information about what we call personal places. Now when they are discovering that in the camera, that’s where the two elements get connected. And if it’s in a walkable place I think it’s a perfect match. MH: So how are you using HATs for
Feral Horses are revolutionising the art world
With CEO Francesco Bellanca MadHATTERs: Could you explain a bit about who Feral Horses are? Francesco Bellanca: At Feral Horses we are developing a platform to give anyone access to art investment. We are giving people the possibility to buy shares in artworks rather than having to buy the whole thing. What we do with the physical art is that it’s rented out to corporates or hotels, and that creates a profit. The dividend is divided proportionally among the shareholders. MH: Who do you find is that kind of customer?
FB: We have three channels, the first one is the galleries, so when we start putting something on at a gallery, we advise the gallery in the same way as someone like Crowdcube: how to signal good opportunities to investors. Then we have another channel, the communication that we have together with the galleries. We target galleries that have been investing in online presences. And the cool thing for us is that they’re building this customer base but they cannot monetise that, because they’re still selling £50,000 pieces of art. So even if they can get art enthusiasts, they never manage
to convert. So we say, hey, let’s do something together, and we get those people on the platform. And the third channel is finance savvy millennials. They’re more and more willing to invest, and art is a cool asset in which to do so. It’s for that distribution channel that we are now talking with money apps like Oval Money and Moneybox for the possibility to advertise on their apps and create a channel of distribution through them. MH: So how is personal data important for you? FB: We have two big stories here. What comes out of our platform is a very digitised, more liquid art market, which gives us a staggering amount
this information? TS: I was keen to actually give our users more trust, and HATs seem to be providing that. It’s a step in the right direction. Also with GDPR, it helps us tackle that when it comes to holding that data. So that’s one of the reasons I got really keen to join the HAT as a partner.
HAT Inno
class o
2017 of transactional data on the art, which we can then use to model pricing. On the other side, we get data on the people who invest in art. And so personal data on that side opens up the story of taste, and willingness to invest in certain art. And that is data that is non-existent at the moment, because the art investor market is very small and very opaque. So we are actually cracking it open on the art side and on the investors. MH: So what is it that you’re doing with HAT? FB: The idea here is to say, hey, if we can put our users on the HAT, and give ourselves the possibility to scale quickly on the data maintenance side – because we don’t have to do it as HAT takes care of that. HATs also give us access to other types of personal data, which we can ask our users to borrow and use it for analysis. We can trigger analysis on the taste side way more quickly, in a much easier way than we would without the HAT.
Good Loop is making advertising a better place With Managing Director Amy Williams MadHATTERs: So who are Good Loop? Amy Williams: We put opt-in ads on websites, and then we give the viewer the chance to donate half of the money from every ad to a charity of their choice. So essentially we are an ad network that converts advertising money into funding for charitable organisations. MH: Do you work with the charities, or can you donate to any charity you like? AW: The charities are an important partner for us and they work directly with us. Every time you watch an ad, you’ll see a shortlist of charities and you can chose which one you want to donate to. We work with our brand partners to find a shortlist of charities that are relevant to their consumers and also reinforce their brand values. If we’re working with a brand that’s got really high green credentials, then we can partner
ovation
of
7
with charities that work with things like the Rainforest Alliance or WWF. MH: In some cases that must be a useful exercise for the brands. AW: It’s funny, sometimes I talk to them and they know straight away. And then sometimes I’ll be sat in a meeting, and they’re like, oh, I have to think about that, we’re not sure. And it’s quite interesting to ask, well, what is it that your consumers care about? Actually some brands are quite interested in using our platform as a way to engage that and to help them make decisions about what their social values should be and how they should be working with third sector. MH: So how do HATs fit into this, how does personal data inform what you’re doing? AW: Well our overall premise as a business is that if you give people choice and control over how they engage with advertising, you create more value in the advertising supply chain. At the moment we have a video player that is opt-in – you don’t have to watch an ad if you don’t want to, but if you chose to give an advertiser your time then you get to donate. And the premise behind that is that a forced or coerced view is less valuable to an
Shape\ Influence wants to democratise influencer marketing With CEO Gabriel Ng MadHATTERs: Tell me a little bit about Shape? Gabriel Ng: The premise is to focus on the segment of the population whose personal data is realistically more valuable than normal people’s. Like celebrities or influencers. And certain parts of that data – their follower data, follower numbers, their interests and the areas that they have influence in. So we have a market in place already, it’s just figuring out how to serve all sides of it. MH: I find this really interesting, I follow a lot of fashion influencers. GN: My niece, Lisa, too, she follows fit-
ness influencers and whenever they talk, she listens. Coming from the point of view of a merchant it’s like, this is my product, and I just want to get it in the hands of a guy who will try it and love it and tell the whole world. And in the old days that could have been done for nothing, but these days it’s all monetised and you actually do have to line up to get your product in the hands of a guy. So that’s what we’re trying to do.
advertiser than a view where you’ve chosen to lean forward and pay attention. All adverts are more valuable the more targeted they are, so our value to advertisers is intrinsically linked to our data online. And currently they buy that data form the credit card companies or from Facebook, without offering us a cut. As we expand we will be looking at giving people the option to opt in with their data as well as with their eyeballs, so you can donate your information: you could tell them that you’re female and you live in London. That makes your advertising more valuable, and any extra value that is created will go to the causes that you want to donate to. I think there’s a real movement at the moment, there’s a real zeitgeist
by agencies or by their own staff, and the big merchants as well, so our approach is to democratise that. We want to start with the grassroots, with people with 10K to 100K followers, rather than the ones with millions, and we want to see how the democratic sharing of preferences, of data, can change the market. And so we’re going to start with something that is not so demanding of numbers: dining. In dining you don’t need huge numbers of followers to be an influencer, because it’s very local. It’s about expertise.
MH: So how do HATs fit into this?
MH: So does HAT help with that matching? Connecting smaller scale influencers to local brands, without needing a PR agency?
GN: So it’s a matter of approach; where do we start. The big influencers, those with hundreds of thousands of followers are already very well served
GN: Yes exactly, and there’s a few models we’re considering. On the one hand there’s microendorsements: a very simple ‘eat and tweet’ thing.
around bringing people into this equation, because at the moment the online advertising system operates like we don’t exist. There’s a much bigger trend that HAT and all of its partners are tapping into around cutting people in on the deal and giving people a fairer value exchange. The tendency towards being disrespectful and interruptive – that’s what’s driving adblocking. So from a consumer facing perspective we pitch ourselves as the ad choice alternative to ad block. If you download an adblocker, you’re making it worse because you’re taking your value out of the whole supply chain and that value is what funds the journalists creating content and quality news. You should have ad choice not ad block.
And HAT means influencers can gain benefits and cash for that easily. But we’re also considering trying to be a bit more customised, coming up with a recommendation engine where what I recommend to you is based on what I think you want, or what you tell me that you want. My recommendation to a friend really depends on whether that friend is going with a family of four, going for a couple’s night out, going for an afterwork party – it’s a different vibe. I would like that flexibility to be in there. That’s where I think we would have a bit of a difference over existing review sites like Yelp or Trip Advisor, where it’s the established businesses that move to the top of the charts. MH: I can imagine an engine where you enter a number of attributes, like tags. GN: Exactly. And then that is matched with either influencers who talk about those kinds of places, or places themselves. And so that matching can go on using data that’s already in a person’s HAT, in addition to the attributes they search for, without there being a need to store that.
HAT R&D
What’s new in HAT research? THE HAT PROJECT started as a £1.2m 6 university project funded by the Research Council UK Digital Economy programme. Over the years, our research community has widened to include higher education institutions and grant projects from all over the UK and globally. Many operate their own HATLABs, where, together with the foundation, they do cutting edge research on the personal data economy, contributing to the open source code and conducting research that can help individuals, corporations and society thrive in an equitable manner.
HATLABs HATLABs are Research and Innovation Labs located within a higher education institution, where they provision HATs from their own independent HAT cluster. Academics leading HATLABs form part of the foundation research and innovation steering board. We propose to enquire into how students at Surrey University ‘choice
Snippets from HATLABs
bracket’ personal data. Do they perceive it to be a thing of monetary or
“We are developing a socio-technical framework for reducing human-
reciprocal payments? If, as the privacy paradox suggests, we normatively
related risks in cyber security and cybercrime contexts. Our approach will
underestimate the worth of personal data, then can this unconscious
involve using sensors of different activities of human users in cyber-phys-
practice be challenged? Can we turn passive exchange into active digital
ical and cyber-social space, and the sharing and trading of information
entrepreneurship?”
between individual human users and organisations. We use HAT as the
Professor Roger Maull,
underlying data management platform to link user-side sensors and the
non-monetary value? Do they perceive it as an asset to be exchanged for
Director, Centre for Digital Economy, University of Surrey
information sharing and trading components.”
Professor Shujun Li Professor of Cyber Security, University of Kent
“We plan to use HAT to gain an understanding of how research participants value their data, and how this fits into an overall pattern of financial digital literacy. The aspect of financial literacy we intend to investigate focuses on ‘mental accounting’ – that is perceptions of gains and losses and the allocation of monies to different use categories such as cash, savings and loan payments.
“We are excited about research opportunities that the HAT provides to interdisciplinary scientists. The HAT platform allows us to design experiments and work with individual users to explore the value of their personal data in order to develop better cybersecurity systems as well as help goods and services providers to offer new business models. Our goal is to help consumers collect, understand, and use their data to gain better, more personalised, more affordable, goods and services.”
Professor Ganna Pogrebna Professor of Behavioural Science, Birmingham Business School
Claim Your Data! Anna DeWolf: What is it about personal data that you feel strongly about? Patrick Andrews: One of the things I’ve thought about a lot is this question of where power sits in society. Wherever there’s a resource that gives you power over others, it tends to accumulate in the hands of a few. It’s clear that data is becoming a new source of power – the biggest companies in the world are valued by their ability to gather data and manipulate it. That does get me passionate because I see it as an unfair system. Companies, when they get too much power, tend to get very remote from their impact, and I’ve seen from a legal background how human rights are really important in stopping the worst excesses of that. What’s needed in this data world is a starting point; we need individuals to say, hang on, I’ve got rights. AD: So why is it valuable, why should people care about their data? PA: There’s an increasingly obvious value to society – this stuff will be used to make decisions. Also, if data comes directly from us it’s much more likely to be better quality than for, say, Fitbit trying to and extract and extrapolate what makes it meaningful. I think why individuals should care is a bit less obvious, and that’s where part of the mission of the campaign lies. Just consider what corporations have built on the back of our data, what they’ve been able to learn about our behaviours as consumers. We could have at least that learning, and then some. I’ve no doubt that amazing uses will emerge. AD: So tell us about the campaign. PA: The thinking behind it is firstly that individuals have a lot more
Anna DeWolf sat down with Patrick Andrews, chief advocate of the newly formed Claim Your Data campaign, to talk Tesco, activism and why we’re in a legal wild west.
power than they’re aware of. There’s this expectation that data held by just a few companies will just continue. But there’s a group of us thinking; it’s time for the next phase of the digital age, which is about individuals stepping up and exercising their rights to hold their own data. And to use it for what they want. There’s a lack of awareness out there, so the campaign is fundamentally about changing the conversation about data, and to recognise this new phase emerging. We’re timing it to coincide with the GDPR, and there’s some provisions in there which will potentially change the game fundamentally. The one we’re focused on is data portability; to give the right to individuals to move their data around. If they can give that in the form of access to an API, it makes that data portability real, and allows people to start making choices with it. AD: What does access to an API mean? PA: It means that data can be transferred basically instantaneously, from application to application, program to program, in the same way that a website downloads data from a server to your browser. It’s the difference between you being able to view your data in an app, with software that turns it into readable graphs or lists, or being sent that data in an incomprehensible file. AD: So how will the campaign do this? PA: In a way there’s a theoretical right emerging, which the legislators in Europe have decided is important; but rights that aren’t exercised, well, they tend to get lost, so it’s really important that people step up and start claiming their right to data portability. We will be writing publicly to companies who hold data, gathering a bunch of people who are
Image: Chris Warham / Shutterstock.com
willing to be seen claiming their data, to large (tech) companies like Facebook and Google, but also those like Tesco, who are much less visible in the data realm but are obviously spending huge amounts of energy on their loyalty cards, amassing data about consumers, with the purpose of selling. But that information might be valuable to you in other ways.
“The law is still developing, and it’s not really designed for the way the technology works, so it’s got to be changed. It is very much a wild west, and the regulators can only play catch up.”
AD: Obviously we’ve got the GDPR coming in, but from a legal perspective, are we still in the wild west when it comes to data? PA: The wild west is quite a good example, because when a new society is developing, it hasn’t got all the societal architecture to shape its governance. The laws of the Data Protection Act were designed when Facebook didn’t exist, so some of the legal concepts, like data controllers and data processors, don’t quite reflect reality. So first, the law is a bit unclear and still developing. Secondly, it’s not really designed for the way the technology works and the practices of businesses, so it’s got to be changed. And
the enforcement isn’t really there, partly because people can get away with it. So it is very much a wild west, and the regulators can only play catch up. I think that’s partly why we think there’s a need for campaigns like ours and others’, because in that unregulated environment, individuals need to become the regulators who are challenging the practices. AD: So the campaign is drawing attention to what the digital structures could be. PA: I think we’re pointing to new possibilities. Some people are looking at what’s happening at Facebook and Google, and assuming the regulators eventually will catch up and slow them down and start to get them under control, and we’re saying that there could well be a completely different way of thinking about what’s going to emerge.
What can you do? Visit claimyourdata.me Sign up to our mailing list for campaign updates Donate to our crowdfunding page Consider joining us as an activist demanding your data!
On the Horizon THE INTERNET HAS grown into a digital nation. Almost all of what we do offline, we now also do online. We shop at Amazon, interact on a smartphone, search and browse on Google, and socialise on Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram. Every nation needs citizens, and the Internet has created this too. Every time we go online, we generate data. The amount of data generated
HAT Coin and the Nation of the Internet The fight for privacy is a fight for scraps: stop squabbling for privacy and start demanding economic power, says Irene Ng.
don’t really own any of our persona; it’s held in bits and pieces by companies that we interact with. Our health records are in one place, our finance records in another. We are technologically inferior citizens on the Internet. Institutions have far superior tech and can manipulate and analyse the data better than we can, with software, bots and AI. Third, the Internet
from our clicks, likes, watch lists and
as a nation lacks even basic societal
browsing habits has created enough
needs, i.e. the right to gather as a
personal data to sufficiently form a
community without being watched,
digital persona, which is not merely
the use of ‘public’ goods – none of
our identity, but a history of our expe-
that is available on the Internet. And
riences. In short, our digital life story
the economic power that is fuelling
is rendered in the record of our digital
the Internet is the personal data that
labour. Our digital personas are the
makes up our digital personas.
‘citizens’ of this nation – whether we
As citizens of the Internet, we lack any
like it or not – and whoever has power
of that economic power. The econom-
over the digital personas governs this
ic power to influence markets online,
Internet nation. There are currently
the economic power to choose whom
two types of governance on the Inter-
we wish to reward, and whom we
net.
wish to punish. The economic power
Governing through control of our
to enforce societal interests, instead
digital persona.
of purely commercial ones. There is no way we will have economic power
The tech giants implicitly govern us
if we are inferior citizens. We have no
because we use their platforms on a
way of manipulating data; we don’t
daily basis. To ensure this nation and economy thrives, the tech giants have to protect our digital personas against the evils out there. Hence they ensure we get some confidentiality (from other people, at least), give us choices, delete our data when we ask them to, protect our data from other nefarious forces, even while they provide us with services and ads and then return the profits to shareholders. Whether you think this is right or wrong, the tech giants collectively govern over all our digital personas, and they must govern well. Governing through penalties. Our physical world governments have very few assets online and we hardly ever use a government service on the Internet unless it is to attend to physical world needs. However, these governments have an executive role in the countries in which tech companies operate, so they have some power on the Internet by penalising them if they detect wrongdoing. To make a physical world analogy, it’s as if the government is only the police force, and can’t do anything about the roads or any public services. The relationship between our digital
personas with our physical personas is where lies the fundamental issue for privacy online. It is debatable whether the
cat-loving-YouTube-virtual-dom-
inatrix-fake-news-sharer is even the same person as mild-mannered Miss Cathy Jones working at the bank. Yet, the more the two can be linked, the greater the privacy fears, and this is where some believe that governments need to be involved to protect individuals. Privacy is a fundamental right, they say, and the government has to set rules on when and how these rights can be preserved and upheld. In other words, the use of our
“Does the fight for privacy then hand the government the moral right to govern our digital personas on the free Internet?” digital personas – our personal data – must be regulated. Does the fight for privacy then hand the government the moral right to govern our digital
personas on the free Internet? This might be fine for those of us who trust our governments, but not so for many of us who don’t. In any case, if this could solve the privacy problem, then perhaps it might be
“The battle is to have the same powers; to interact in the Internet nation on a level playing field.”
worth it. But it doesn’t. The truth of the matter is that our digital labour
own software or services. We have no
on existing platforms, translated to
servers that can do analytics on our
personal data, is given away the min-
data; we don’t have bots or AI. The
ute we go online. To fight for privacy,
battle for us as individuals is a battle
if we are to keep dishing out our digi-
to be powerful, to not be inferior citi-
tal labour, is to fight for scraps to con-
zens of the Internet nation. There are
sole ourselves with, and mandating
two ways of doing this. First, have the
our governments to fight for us when
tech. Second, control the raw material
they don’t have much power either
that fuels the tech.
isn’t a viable solution.
The tech is a HAT private ‘micros-
The Internet is a rather strange na-
erver’ data account. One that enables
tion, and quite different from the kind
us to pull and push any data we want,
we are used to. For one, in this Inter-
to people we want to give it to in ex-
net nation, where digital personas are
change for services. They allow us to
citizens, almost all Internet services
own our personal data through a da-
are commercial, so the moment we
tabase of our own, and be in control
step into the connected digital world
of the microservices that transform
we are consuming a service that is
the data and exchange it with whom-
provided by an organisation. It would
ever we wish. This is tech that enables
be as if you need to pay toll for all the
us to have bots and AI analysing our
sidewalks, roads, parks and corners,
own data, privately. The tech to em-
whether it’s payment by money or
power us has finally arrived and be-
data. Second, as a digital persona, we
come cheap enough for us to acquire.
The raw material is the same as that which fuels the $31bn adtech business; personal data generated from our browsing, postings, clicks, views, likes, records, information. It’s generated by us and we should be able to acquire it for ourselves, and then free to exchange it on our terms. We must use the tech available to us to not only access it, but use it. We don’t need our personal data out there to be erased. That’s not how the battle works. We would just like to have it as well. The battle is to have the same powers; to interact in the Internet nation on a level playing field. We can’t disconnect. But in connecting, we are the source that generates most of the raw material for the connected world. If we start being able to control that raw material, governments and tech giants are not the only ones with the power. With AI and analytics, our digital persona is fuel for inferring our future priorities, our goals and our purchases. We should have the power to determine that. It’s hard to fight against the prevailing wind of big tech giants, who have power simply by being tech superior. But we can change things by just doing something simple. Get a HAT, invest and support the new generation of startups that are building on
Tentative launch date 25th May 2018 • HATCoin is a cryptocurrency for a data-fuelled digital nation on the Internet, HAT nation, with people at the Hub of All Things
• Entities of HAT nation are HAT enabled apps and services on the Internet that use HAT personal data
• Think of HAT nation as a country and HATCoin as the currency
• HATCoin is issued and managed by the HAT Community Foundation, a non-profit organisation and the regulator of the HATDeX platform
• Citizens of HAT nation are HAT owners that own and control their own data (and their own personas) • HATCoin is used to purchase services that are integrated with the HAT Data Exchange (HATDeX) Platform • The greater the number of apps and services available, the greater the use of HATCoin
• Investment into HATCoin is used to support the HAT Community Foundation’s mission: to grow, innovate, represent and regulate the HAT ecosystem. This includes investing in HAT enabled startups and HAT exchanges
the HAT through the HATCoin ICO and stay in touch with the movement through MadHATTERS. Be a nation of tech-superior citizens.
Thank you! HERE’S HOPING YOU enjoyed our special issue of MadHATTERs! We wanted to give you an insight into what’s going on in the wider HAT Community, and hear from some of the amazing people and organisations we’re working with. As always, we love to hear from you, so all ears if you want to drop us a line at contact@hatdex.org, or hit us up on Slack.
Thanks for reading! Leila Trilby & The HAT Team
Hub of All Things https://hubofallthings.com HATDeX https://hatdex.org HAT Community Foundation https://hatcommunity.org