NFTs could be the way to data privacy – expert explains

“Anything that you post on the internet isn’t yours anymore.” A lot of us who grew up in the age of the internet heard that a lot because it’s virtually true. Once you post something online, any and everybody can download it, manipulate it and you have no control over it. However, this might be changing with the introduction of NFTs as the next resource for digital identity management and data privacy. 

“The data economy is estimated to be larger than $3T dollars annually, of which the advertising industry accounts for nearly 20% and is most directly involved in the buying and selling of individual citizens’ private internet activity without clear consent. There is a belief among many computer engineers that the original sin of the internet is not designing for user privacy, as they are the primary producers of data on the internet through their various activities online. Whether or not this belief arose in hindsight of understanding the immense value of the data economy and its foundational input, questionably sourced dataset, data privacy is and the right to it is at the heart of the conversation. Digital identity management refers to a software solution that would have verifiable internet accounts for individual users to act as encrypted buckets for their data to privately connect with the apps and websites that they use across the internet without losing the convenience of the modern technology infrastructure.”says Web3 and NFT expert Connor Borrego.

Is this the kind of technology that society has been waiting for to get their hands on? How do the NFTs tie into this? 

Borrego goes on to say that, “Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) are serial numbers for individual pieces of data and media that are stored across the internet, because the tool uses blockchain technology its ownership is publicly verifiable, private, and secure, which currently is what is making .jpegs, art, and sports highlights collectible. Existing software systems like apps and websites rely heavily on the development of unique identifiers to manage the use of data and media on their sites, so their role in the development of decentralized applications is essential to enabling users to manage their online profile across the multiple sites and apps they visit them, as well as the context in which them, personal vs professional. Using crypto wallet technology a user’s social media profile, banking profile, browsing history, and other sensitive digital breadcrumb trails can be stored with the user. It would open up the ability to run a transparent data market exchange with fair market prices that are going directly to users for various attributes, should they decide not to operate through the internet ecosystem anonymously. The value of NFTs is that their properties would enable users to have a choice in whether or not their digital identity is being bought and sold without care to any buyer.”

If you are interested in learning more about the current crypto, NFTs and Web3, I’d be happy to connect you with regular media contributor Connor Borrego.