As a start-up entrepreneur, I have a lot of ideas, and like most people, I use technology as a means to share and store my intellectual property—whether I’m sharing via social media, storing on my phone, or searching in Google—my ideas (my data) will inevitably end up in a company’s cloud (i.e. Apple, Facebook, Google, Amazon). Big tech has also created ways to access our personal data by extending surveillance into our homes (i.e. Google and Amazon Home products), and social media has continually made our online experience more “personal” by adding facial and voice recognition to their data collecting initiative. Clearly, we are not in control of the data we share/store online—instead it goes straight into the hands of companies that are happily exploiting it—to make money, divide us, and dismantle our democracies.

Wake Up Call

The Cambridge Analytica election tampering scandal of March 2018 exposed how deplorable the Surveillance Capital business model had become and how irresponsible technology companies are with our data. Much like the Deepwater Horizon disaster of 2010 exposed the recklessness of Oil and Gas companies, the Cambridge Analytica scandal made us aware of just how valuable, and vulnerable, our data really is. Responsibility for user data is the next Internet battleground. Stewarding user data is becoming too expensive, and the fines are too egregious to make it worthwhile. The Surveillance Capital business model is collapsing under the weight of its obligations as owner, moderator, and publisher—something has to give. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, admitted as much in a Tweet on December 11, 2019.

Necessary Next Steps

Blockchain-based technologies like distributed ledger databases and asynchronous edge- networking are the key to solving the user data problem. A decentralised Internet (Web 3.0) based on a network of self-sovereign, user-based nodes would not only solve the problems of user consent, and content moderation, but it would provide a future for social networking where users could have a self-sovereign, digital identity. Our personal Data is extremely valuable—as individuals, we have to re-evaluate the way we distribute it. It’s time to take action and create an Internet that perpetuates inclusivity, balance, and user control. This is precisely why my team (at Peer Social) and I are building a technology that could free everyone from the cloud-based, data hungry hamster wheel. In my presentation I will highlight social media’s fall from grace and how decentralisation can be the basis of a new, self-sovereign, social future—by giving users ownership of their data so they can empower themselves and make online, human-to-human connections without their data being compromised.

Bio: Michael Cholod is the CEO of Peer Social. He has over 20 years experience in Entrepreneurship, Sales and Marketing, and Venture Capital. He has witnessed the explosive growth of some of the world’s most revolutionary technologies and watched the Internet transform the world. Michael founded Peer Social to pursue technological innovation with a conscience—a place where the best and brightest minds can work together and build something that will have a positive impact on the world. The team is made up of dedicated decentralists and social media enthusiasts who are researching and developing new Internet architectures and technologies, in an effort to solve some of the most pressing problems of our time. The Internet had the potential to be a positive tool, one that could unite us—instead it is used to steal our data, divide us, and dismantle our democracies. This is why he is committed to creating a user-centric solution to counteract a serious problem—cloud based, social networking and the Surveillance Capital business model. Peer Social’s focus is on distributed ledger, decentralised computing, and adaptive mesh networking. These technologies have the potential to produce a sustainable foundation for a new, distributed Internet—an Internet where everyone can feel safe, secure, and in control of their data and digital identity.