In this passionate plea for data sovereignty, Don Tapscott argues that the platform economy is broken: Technology giants earn billions by collecting their users’ information and selling insights to advertisers. This has many negative effects in business and society, Tapscott – Executive Chairman of the Blockchain Research Institute – says. “Without us reclaiming our identities, there can be no prosperity, security, autonomy of the individual, and no freedom.”
The solution, Tapscott proposes, lies in applying decentralized data management that would allow all people to control the information that is collected about them – and easily decide who has access to this information. In medicine, this could facilitate digital health but also advance research, Tapscott argues. More broadly it might turn the Internet from an “Internet of information” in an “Internet of value”.
