Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who brought us the World Wide Web almost three decades ago, is so fed up with web apps that rob you of your privacy that he is creating a whole new web platform.
“So the whole proposal is to bring the idea of a decentralized web. Bring back the power to the people,” he says. He is taking time off at MIT to get it market ready. Berners-Lee says the tradeoff of your privacy and the free services that Google and Facebook offer just isn't worth it.
It’s an online dilemma: social media or your privacy. Marc Scarborough, Chief Information Security Officer for Rice, says “Certain companies have created eco-systems by which their drivers can collect all kinds of information about YOU so they can sell it to advertisers.” I asked Scarborough who he thinks the “target market” could possibly be. “I think that people who are most likely to use this platform are people who are very concerned about their privacy and can give up social media and Google. They just don’t want any company to know that much about them.” We’ll keep you posted!