With all my recent interest in privacy, one of the hopes and dreams I wanted blockchain to provide was the ultimate identifcation. The magic, all in one application that can log me into anything, but only give it the bare bones amount of data that I am willing to share. I’ve been doing a lot more reading on blockchain, privacy, machine learning and all these other fun converging technologies. All of them have the potential to make life much better or much worse for us. The truth, like most things, lies somewhere in between. I read this article a few days ago and it gives a pretty good perspective on just how much data is being collected.

All Your Data R Belong to Us by Ionut Ciobotaru

Now keep in mind, all every article you read will always have it’s bias and it’s own spin, but if you start to read enough different pieces, you can start to piece together the facts from the opinions. for example, this article discusses the same thing (mostly) from a perspective of healthcare:

Why do we need data sovereignty in healthcare? by PCL Health

Now, this is an area of particular interest for me. I am very much an advocate of keeping my data private… but when it comes to health and wellness, this is an area where I’m inclined to be more generous with my data. To the point of even giving it away. After listening to podcasts and reading article of the miraculous things that machine learning could do for our medical system, if only it had labeled data to work with, really leads me to believe my goal of living to 150 is quite possible. But like everything, we need all of the systems speaking the same language (preferably cataloging data into the same format etc.). If that started to happen, we could really help our MD’s focus on the big problems, rather than the tedious looking at something and performing routine tests. The whole skin cancer app that was created by Sebastion Thrun is a great example of that. If an IPhone app can do that with better accuracy than a doctor with the current datasets, what happens if we give it more and better data?

Of course, we have the flip side of this… if you give too much data, does that give insurance companies reason not to cover you? how can be altuistic, without hanging yourself out to dry??? My hope is the SSI (or self sovereign ID). Take a look at this article if you’d like to understand more of what it currently is…

Self-Sovereign Identity

Now, keep in mind… this is just one iteration. What if we could really have an app that exchanged the data needed (for example, buying alcohol and it could show proof that I’m over 21… it doesn’t need to know I’m much older… just that I meet the threshold). Now, start moving that into the voting arena. What if you could prove you are a valid voter just with a social security card (at least at the federal level) and what if I could prove that I’m alive, and that I live in a certain county. That suddenly opens me up to everything. it doesn’t care if my residence is at a homeless shelter, a house boat, or an apartment downtown. It doesn’t need to know. it just needs to prove that this ID is voting exactly one time… and only for one area. Pretty cool, I think.

This is really an area I would like to contribute to. So if anyone knows of ways that I could either get involved with a company working on this, or looking for beta testers, let me know. I know, this also has the power to be abused… but if you can hide your details and only show what you need to show, it feels like this is a great way to start taking back our own data, and keeping the government and corporations out of all our details. (at least eventually… every little bit helps, given they already have the keys to the kingdom, we need to start taking it back in any way we can).

Thanks for reading,
Piehl

One of the things I’ve noticed is that with each passing year, privacy becomes less and less of a right for US citizens (maybe it’s the same everywhere else, but I can only speak of what I know). Think about how things have changed since 9/11. In order to provide “security”, we gave the government countless new powers with the Patriot Act. The advent of the TSA at airports (and now showing up at more and more places). The interesting thing is that in 2020, the USA Freedom Act was renewed, and that basically renews the survielance portions of the Patriot Act. If you curious about some of the things that are still in effect, take a look at this blog post. The basics are that it is entirely legal for the FBI, NSA, CIA to spy on anyone in the US with little to no oversight.

Meanwhile, nearly every major tech company is in bed with the government. At any point in time, the FBI can call up Google, Apple, Amazon and get any piece of information about anyone. And to make things crazier, we all invite this into our homes with Amazon Alexa devices in every room of the house, Google, Facebook, etc, capture every bit of data we give them and use that data to sell us things, direct our searches, in fact even guide our searches. With machine learning and AI technology, every streaming service can instantly recommend what we should watch next… but is it because it is something I would like? or is it because it is in the best interest of the company selling me stuff? maybe both… but if you take a step back and really look at things, how do you know that even what you think you believe is what you really believe… or has it been scewed by articles that Google guides you to, people and organizations that Facebook says you should follow, etc… Let’s face it, Google already has more than enough data on every one of us to build a profile that can probably predict what we will do on any given day (Google Maps, Google Photo’s, Google Search, etc.). If asked, this data is purely anonymous, and only used to help make the search engine smarter… true??? who knows? but I personally doubt it.

Then there is all the technology that we don’t know about. Let’s face it, what can the CIA, NSA, FBI do today that they don’t admit? Access to every public camera at any time, facial recognition that gets better by the day, and using ever improving AI, it’s possible to track utility usage, all phone conversations, web traffic, purchases, where you go every day based on your car or smartphone, and on and on. Are all these in effect for every citizen? Of course, no one will admit it, but I’m sure that some or all of this is in effect on US citizens despite what the law says.

Now, with all of this, is there anything you can do to try to regain control of your data? There are a couple things you can do to at least begin taking charge of your privacy. Here are couple recommendations. it won’t help everything we’ve already given away for free… but it might help for all your future data.

Select a browser that respects security. I personally am enjoying the Brave Browser. It it built with privacy in mind, and has flagged a lot of things as “questionable”, whereas my other browsers installed it without question. It also has the fun bonus of using blockchain tokens (BAT or Basic Attention Tokens) that can be earned as tips or by watching adds.
Use a VPN. Again, it’s not perfect, but using a VPN at least obscures your IP address and makes it a little harder for people to track you. Let’s face it, if anyone really wants to know, there is plenty of technology that could backtrack you… so don’t expect to get away with illegal activities just because you used a VPN 😉
Choose your search engine wisely. I confess, I still often use Google, but I focus that for work queries (usually SAP related tidbits). But I’m experimenting with Duck Duck Go, another company focused on your privacy.
Location services on your phone can be turned off for most apps. It’s not perfect, and the phone itself can still track you, but do you really need every one of your apps knowing where you are at all times? Believe me, if you let them, they will capture that data and use it to push you new things you should be or places you should spend your money.
Pay Attention to Cryptocurrency and Blockchain. These technologies have the promise of providing truly anonymous spending and transfer for data, allowing you decide what data should be provided to any website, or transaction. With the explosion of new tokens and currencies finding new ways to make the blockchain more useable, we might have a hope to regaining some privacy. Its not there yet (and remember, if you have your crypto in places like Coinbase, or BlockFi, it isn’t anonymous, they know all about you. If you really want to be private, you need to move your tokens to a private wallet… but more on that in the future 🙂

My parting thought to you is from Ben Frankin:

“Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.”

it is more true today, than ever before.

Thanks for reading,

Self-Sovereign ID’s

Privacy… is there any such thing anymore?

“Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.”