There has been an overload of data (over)sharing/data leakage stories in the media as we approach the GDPR deadline on May 25th. Maybe specifically so, in order to cleanse organisations before they get penalised more stringently. But it was a quote from the fantastic speech by StopFake's Olga Yurkov at #TED2018 that really got me thinking. The quote was this:
‘People no longer know what is real and what is fake and a lot of people have stopped believing anything at all. This is even more dangerous’
Life Tells Me So
As Mum to a teenager, I can tell you that this upcoming generation share their data happily and widely. A veritable 'Open Banking' dream.
In stark contrast to the hype-scare-shock stories thrown about by the more unscrupulous media, this generation DO understand the ramifications and pitfalls of sharing. And sadly - albeit wisely - they don’t do it with the expectation that nothing will ever be leaked, that trust is given. They do it purely because that’s how life is for them. They share to participate, to be there. To matter.
But they have FAR less loyalty than those of us who have gone before and they generally meet with change far more willingly. Cross them and you’ll pay the price as the likes of Zuckerberg are finding out to their cost, with 1 in 10 Americans quoted as deleting their facebook profiles. There are always other options out there - like Vero for the Facebook disgruntled - and they’re being adopted by younger people, because they got stung.
But how do we get away from this era of fake news, data meaninglessness, a total loss of faith and the feeling that you can’t believe anything at all?
The Sadness of an Era
In my opinion, it’s the sadness of an era - that data sharers have been 'had-over' by irresponsible carers, to the point where we now have a generation who don’t believe a damned thing. For the young to question things is very natural and encourageable. For the young to have no belief in anything because they can’t be sure of the integrity of anything at all is disheartening, in the extreme.
In my lectures, there used to be one unquestionable truth (unless - like me - you took Philosophy with Dr Mettler, when everything was of questionable descendancy).
A fact.
What are Facts Today?
What constitutes a fact in this day and age? Where can you find them? How can you be sure that when you consume data that these are facts you are reading? Does the term fact even mean anything any more?
How do we get back to a point where data is absolute and trustworthy? The innate nature of the word.
A Plausible Solution
Of course, companies like Facebook are now adding to the existing (albeit previously sub-standard) ability for consumers to manage their own data privacy and sharing rights. But statistics show us that this is a poor bet - and if you're in any doubt, please go and look at the complexity that Facebook just added to 'where is my data shared'. I'm a technologist and even I spent a good forty-five minutes trying to determine the ramifications of what on earth it all really meant.
Future trust lies in technologies such as blockchain, which can help hugely. Distributed responsibility over permission-based ledgers, with shared authority for data integrity. A world where data can be trusted because it’s been verified by numerous sources and is - for the most part - immutable. A technology that can share facts between various parties, as the upcoming generation demand; not keeping data siloed, but guaranteeing its authenticity.
It is incredibly sad in this age of 'Technological Utopia' that what we have based our world on for thousands of years, what the internet tried to proliferate to the masses, is now all up for debate because we failed to police the parentage - the birth data - of ‘facts’.
We can right this, but we have a closing window of trust. We need to act now.
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