Tim Berners-Lee draws NHS, BBC and NatWest to Interrupt’s Solid platform

LONDON – Tim Berners-Lee, the UK computer scientist best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web, has revealed his latest startup has launched a privacy platform for businesses. The UK’s National Health Service, the BBC, NatWest Bank and the Flemish government are among the first adopters.

Inrupt, founded by Berners-Lee and CEO John Bruce in 2018, aims to develop technology that gives people control over their data, allowing them to choose where their data is stored and who has access to it.

The start-up announced on Monday that it had launched a business version of its Solid platform. Designed with scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Solid allows users to create online personal data stores, or pods, which they can then share with third-party apps if they choose.

Bruce wrote in a blog that the NHS, for example, is using the platform to allow patients to store their personal health data on pods, as well as health app data on their phones or other devices.

“This will generate revolutionary new opportunities that not only restore confidence in data, but also improve our lives,” said Berners-Lee, Chief Technology Officer of Interrupt.

Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989, but he’s increasingly concerned that today’s digital giants are exploiting citizens around the world.

“For all the good we have done, the web has become an engine of inequality and division; influenced by powerful forces that use it for their own agendas, “he wrote in 2018.” Today I believe we have a critical tipping point, and this powerful change for the better is possible – and necessary. “

Berners-Lee added that “Solid is changing the current model where users have to pass personal data to digital giants in exchange for perceived value.”