Solid, the new version of the Internet that challenges giants like Google and Facebook

As if Dr. Frankenstein regrets having created a monstrous creature and seeks to redeem himself with a new version of his invention; the father of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, now he offers a universe online alternative that favors confidentiality and challenges the practices of Internet giants like Google and Facebook. An examination of the ingenuity he helped create.

The inventor of the Web is the face and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Interrupt, the Start created in 2017 which is now moving towards creating an online environment in which users have more control over their data. The group has just announced the Solid project, whose main motto is decentralization and which should mark a new era on the Internet, with greater respect for privacy.

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The Interrupt team is made up of around 30 employees and its community includes hundreds of developers around the world.

The user in power

The basic idea is that each user has their own digital container called POD (acronym of “personal data online”) With a key to access it, control who has access to the information and to which part. The POD is stored in a vendor’s cloud, communicating with the Solid server.

As explained in TechCrunch, Initially, the server with the Solid system is intended for companies and entities in order, in the future, to reach users. “We’re not trying to help the average user yet. We want to work first with large organizations to help them with their users, ”said John Bruce, CEO of Interrupt. “It will take some time to build the system in a way that allows my mother to use it, for example,” he added.

next The country in Spain, Interrupt’s approach is diametrically opposed to that proposed by the companies that now dominate the world online like Google, Amazon, and Facebook, which rely on in-depth personal data analysis and online fingerprint review. “In many occasions, you don’t even know what personal aspects go into the algorithms shaker», Trace the source.

In exchange, Inrupt proposes that control of information be in the hands of users. But beyond the shock with the corporate popes, Bruce says that companies like Google and Facebook could adapt to this modality. After all, says the CEO, this is the web that Berners-Lee envisioned: an area in which the user offers their data in exchange for receiving real value.

Meanwhile, the Start who proposes to revolutionize current web practices is already working with the government of Flanders, a region of Belgium; and with the UK National Health Service (NHS); among other organisms. For example, users can have their own POD with personal documents (ID, driver’s license, etc.) and show them to a business or organization only when needed, not full time. This “locked vault” could also contain the medical history of each user, with data crossed and accessible to hospitals and clinics.

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“The user is in control of their data,” Bruce remarks. This will allow us to move forward in accordance with the will of Berners-Lee, who has always said that the web should be free and open, and that over the past 20 years, great organizations have developed that are winning. money thanks to our data.