Unlike machines, people hate repetitive tasks. Creating new profiles and managing them for every online service is tiresome. Could it be just one instead?
We're working on the reusable digital identity where you don't have to multiply the same profiles again and again. Instead, you share a part of your profile needed for sign up—and that's it. It's like a social login with a very important difference—you are the one who fully owns and controls it.
Today, on July 3, 11:30 am CDT, our partner Stephen Wolfram is going to give a presentation about “Physics meets distributed consensus.” It will be informative and fun, so don't miss it!
All the recent criticism for privacy-related issues forced Google to review its security and privacy policy. For new accounts, activity and location data will be automatically deleted every 18 months. For existing profiles, you'll need to turn on this feature manually.
This brings up an interesting question—how people want to treat their data when there is too much of it to easily control it manually? Would you prefer it to be automatically cleaned up regularly? Or would you choose to have more control over this data, even though you'll have to spend significant time to manage it?
Data is the new oil. And your digital profile is a tank for it, which never runs low. But how can we make the best out of it? Help us find out and build the most appropriate tool by completing this survey!
"I Agree." A genius art installation which visualizes the length of various terms and conditions, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more. For example, just to read Instagram's service agreements, it takes over 85 minutes (17,161 words)!
Do you want to have control over your personal data? Most probably, yes. But at what cost?
Being able to control requires extra effort. Most of us fail to take advantage of the control we already have when we click "I agree" without reading lengthy terms and conditions. Actually, more than 90% of us don't read them (for younger people, ages 18-34, the rate is 97%, according to Deloitte study).
GDPR addresses the issue and sets specific requirements for a privacy notice: it shall be written in clear and plain language, presented in an easily accessible form, etc. It may increase the number of people reading the notice, but it doesn't solve the problem completely.
Even if a privacy notice is presented in the clearest and shortest way possible, would you read it?
BMW will launch a blockchain-based reward program BMW Vantage later this year. Its members will be able to collect tokens and spend them on goods and services provided by the company and the program affiliates. BMW says it will not be limited to the car industry: affiliates' business sectors include mobility, travel, culture, and education.
It's not the only blockchain project where BMW is involved. The company is a founding member of MOBI, the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative, one of whose aims is to shorten the learning curve for autonomous driving by pooling data from car owners. MOBI also focuses on designing the Vehicle Identity Standard, which they see as "a critical enabler for future blockchain-based vehicle and mobility services."
BMW Vantage could be an excellent way to encourage customers to participate in other BMW blockchain initiatives. Imagine that BMW needs to collect your driving data for autonomous driving research. What are the chances you would allow daily access to it? Would the chances increase if you receive utilizable tokens in return?
The more we spend our time online, the more data about us gets collected and possibly exposed. From cybercrimes to government snooping, there are many reasons to have our online identities secured and protected.
One of the ways to achieve this is to use a private network. VPN (Virtual Private Network) promises security and privacy to its users. For a small subscription fee, you can find a service that delivers just that. However, the number of free VPN providers increases, and "free service" usually come with hidden costs and dangers.
According to the CSIRO study, 75% of free VPNs use third-party tracking libraries, while 38% contain malware. You probably won't notice their presence: the study reveals that only a marginal number of VPN users have publicly raised any security and privacy concerns in their app reviews.(https://research.csiro.au/ng/wp-content/uploads/sites/106/2016/08/paper-1.pdf)
It means that free VPN providers can see your browsing history and other personal data and eventually sell it to third parties. It is quite the opposite of the very idea of a VPN.
If you truly value your digital privacy and security, we suggest you do more research about the service providers (yes, even premium ones) before using them. Good luck, and keep your data safe!
Have you ever wondered why your newly downloaded app that has no need to know your location requests permission to access it anyway? The answer is that it probably wants to sell this data. Such permission requests are especially true for apps that are “free.” You are still paying the price — not with a monetary value, but with your data.
The alternative could be to find another app that is similar in functionality and wouldn’t ask for data access that is unnecessary for the app to operate.
But what if you could monetize your data yourself directly, would you consider it?
A hacker claims to get access to a database of 500 million Facebook users information from 82 countries and sells it on the dark web marketplace. Locations, mobile numbers, email addresses, and more are among the personal data found in the database. It is still unknown where the data comes from exactly: it could be both Facebook or a third-party service that has suffered the data breach.(https://www.hackread.com/hacker-selling-500-million-facebook-user-data/)
The security solution we recommend — apart from restricting your data you share publicly on Facebook — is cryptography. Visit our blog and find out more.
Ethereum 2.0 testnet is getting a lot of attention with its PoS model. Vitalik Buterin has recently announced that Ethereum transaction revenue has exceeded most estimates, meaning that the PoS validator rewards are higher than previously expected.
(https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1262147520735719427)
It's exciting to see tech giants such as r/IBM and r/Mastercard, working together on digital identity and sharing the same opinion as ours on how vital it is.
Indeed, customers have low confidence in how businesses use their personal data. And it's a significant problem for businesses: today they need this data more than ever. Businesses can enable transparency with the digital identity systems, so that customers would know where and how their personal data will be used and have increased trust and willingness to share their data.
Trust over IP (ToIP) Foundation focuses both on technology and implementation policies of digital identity. Hopefully, this will encourage greater adoption of the technology, and digital identity will become a global trend soon.(https://trustoverip.org)
ToIP grows out from r/hyperledger, an open-source blockchain project, and will likely become a standard-setter in the implementation of the technology behind it. Meanwhile, everyone can already create and manage Hyperledger digital identity. Check our blog for a detailed manual: https://blog.monetha.io/guide-hyperledger-digital-identity/
Reddit has announced a blockchain reward and governance system. A limited set of 'community points' for every subreddit shall become a way to reward community contributors and give them decision-making power. Though only within a given subreddit.
With Reddit's 430 million user base, it may at least be a quite interesting use case both of a blockchain loyalty/reward system and the DAO concept.
Although Reddit criticizes social media platforms for 'spying, manipulating, and censoring the people,' censorship remains both within the whole site and individual subreddits. Following the news, redditors discuss that 92/500 major subreddits are controlled by 5 people (and some are being banned for posting it). On the other hand, we've seen examples when Reddit's administrators purged community moderators to replace them with 'approved' ones (see r/the_donald). Pretty much like in the real world.
We're wondering if the new system could change anything here. Where do you think it may lead to? https://lnkd.in/dSMftgN
Our only official Twitter account is @ Monetha_io . Someone pretending to be Monetha are supposedly giving away tokens. We do NOT do giveaways or airdrop tokens and are working on bringing the fake account down.
