The inventor of the Web, Tim Berners-Lee, wants to protect the Internet. here's how

Berners-Lee revealed on Monday a new campaign called "Contract for the Web" at the technical conference Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal. The campaign promotes the principles that drive governments, businesses and citizens to improve the Internet and combat hate speech, privacy breaches and political manipulation.

"Those of us who are online have their rights and freedoms at risk," he said in a statement announcing the project, which was organized by his non-profit organization, the World Wide Web Foundation. . Berners-Lee added that the contract defined "clear and difficult responsibilities" for those who have the power to make the Internet a better place.

More than 50 companies and organizations, including Facebook (FB), Google (GOOG) and the French government signed the contract, which will be published in full in May 2019.

Everyone will be in control of their own data, said Berners-Lee, CNN Business Technical Correspondent Laurie Segall in Lisbon.

"Many companies find it so exciting to be able to stop trying to exploit you, to try to get you buy something you did not want to buy, to go back to the basic model of help the user [and] generate value for the user, "he said.

Personal data is not as valuable to businesses as one would expect, he added. "Maybe it's a myth," said Berners-Lee, rejecting the idea that high-tech companies must collect data to be profitable.

And people are not just going to "accumulate" their data once they're in control, Berners-Lee said. People can always choose to share information with their employers or the companies they shop with.

"The idea of ​​controlling your own data does not just mean that I'm my own silo, blocking everything," he said. "It's really the joy of sharing this with anyone."