The web has done a lot of good and lived up to the expectations:
I imagined the web as an open platform that would allow everyone, everywhere to share information, access opportunities and collaborate across geographic and cultural boundaries.
That part is fulfilled but something has been sacrificed that threatens the vision of the internet as a tool for all humanity:
We have lost control over our personal data!
As our data is then held in proprietary silos, out of sight to us, we lose out on the benefits we could realise if we had direct control over this data, and chose when and with whom to share it. What’s more, we often do not have any way of feeding back to companies what data we’d rather not share – especially with third parties – the T&Cs are all or nothing.
This enables the monitoring of political opponents an lots of other "no no's".
It’s too easy for misinformation to spread on the web
While this is true it is hard to see a sensible solution: It is very clear the we do not need a government or institution that define "real truth".
Political advertising online needs transparency and understanding
The fact that most people get their information from just a few platforms and the increasing sophistication of algorithms drawing upon rich pools of personal data, means that political campaigns are now building individual adverts targeted directly at users.
These are the concerns of Sir Tim Berners-Lee the man that knows the internet best.
You can read his entire letter here
---and happy birthday internet!
