But only for data flows that result from collection in other modes. There's no way in such a scheme to interpose the trustee between the platform and the browser. For that you need another technical fulcrum, which leads directly back to the personal cloud architecture.

But you don't need the intermediary organization providing the cloud server if the personal server can be real rather than virtual. Hence the point of projects like my FreedomBox. Either way, interposing the personal gateway allows information flow control for secrecy, anonymity and autonomy in rudimentary and sophisticated ways.

Yes. But beware of taking this at face value. Digital flim-flam from the Singapore government sending resources at this is distorting "AI" and visualization start-ups as far away as Korea. Dig a little deeper before assuming this is more than vapor.

All without actually improving the freedom of the user, while displacing the locale of power (yes I know: BUT BLOCKCHAIN. More stuff and nonsense.....)

A useful way of thinking about this problem at large scale. But the axis of federated/centralized architecture, not "middleware" and "blockchain," is probably a better orgsanization for the analysis you are trying to present.

How Individuals Maintain Privacy and Control Personal Data

-- By MayaWakamatsu - 08 Dec 2021

1. Introduction

Nowadays, many people use services like email, calendar, and SNS which are provided for free by firms like Google, Apple, or Facebook. However, their personal data is collected and surveilled by the firms, and the personal data is used for commercial purposes. In this essay, I would like to discuss how individuals can protect their personal data from firms.

2. Possible solutions

2.1 Individuals delegate their personal data to a trustee (the data trust scheme)

The data trust scheme is a framework that manages data on behalf of individuals or organizations. This scheme was proposed in the report “Growing the Artificial Intelligence Industry in the UK” (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/652097/Growing_the_artificial_intelligence_industry_in_the_UK.pdf). In the data trust scheme, individuals delegate rights necessary for data management to a trustee, which follows the purpose set for the trust. The trustee makes decisions on who can access the personal data based on the purpose set by the settlor, and the trustee bears the trust obligation.

By using the data trust scheme, individuals can prevent firms like Facebook from surveilling personal data because trustees manage the data and trustees grant access to the data to the firms based on the purpose of the trust. However, even though the trustee bears the trust obligation and follows the purpose of the trust, it is unclear whether consumers can completely trust and rely on this scheme. This is because there might be a gap between ranges of personal data that the individuals would allow firms to access and those that the trustee actually would allow. The trustee might grant access to the data to the firms even if consumers do not want to. Therefore, we should think about schemes in which individuals can control information by themselves.

2.2 Individuals control information by themselves (the personal cloud scheme)

We should think about schemes designed to allow individuals to control their information and decide who they will share their information with. The project called “MesInfos” was introduced in 2012 in France (http://mesinfos.fing.org/english/). The purpose of this project was to return the control right of management, use, or sharing of personal data held by public institutions and firms to individuals. MesInfos? is run by a private consortium led by the non-profit organization Fing. In this scheme, a copy of the data is transferred to the consumer's personal cloud. Consumers download third-party applications on their personal cloud and grant access to their data if it is necessary when they are using the applications. Instead of handing over their data to firms or data users, firms or data users can refer to only the necessary data through the API (Application Programming Interface) on the consumer's private cloud.

We need to create a mechanism in which the individual holds the right to maintain our privacy, and this scheme allows us to control our information. This system promises to protect people's privacy and give individuals ownership of their data. I believe that we can create new technologies in which individuals control what purpose data is used for by using this scheme.

2.3 Individuals control information by themselves (the personal digital twin scheme)

The personal digital twin scheme is a method to link the "personal digital twin" created by utilizing the blockchain that mirrors the virtual existence of physical objects as a twin in the digital environment and middleware that acts as the contact point with the application. This original idea is the technical concept of the digital twin used for production control and quality control in the manufacturing industry. Mirroring the virtual existence of a physical object as twins in a digital simulation environment, and applying this to humans is called a personal digital twin. The Singapore government introduced a project called Virtual Singapore, in which they use digital twin technology (https://www.nrf.gov.sg/programmes/virtual-singapore).

The personal digital twin technology is expected to expand into various fields such as medical care, insurance, and finance. I believe that this technology can be applied to the privacy area as well. Middleware works as the contact point for making decisions by consumers and passing information. The middleware installed on devices such as smartphones and computers manages the connection between consumers and platforms and controls the transmission and reception of information by filtering. The middleware refers to the data of the personal digital twin to check the benefits for the consumer, the benefits of providing the data to firms, and whether it is fine to provide the data to the firms. In this way, I believe that consumers can protect privacy.

3. Conclusion

I believe that we should restructure the technology scheme to allow individuals to control their personal data and protect privacy, and we can achieve this goal by utilizing the personal cloud scheme and the personal data twin scheme.

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