Web3 is developing rapidly, but we should also proceed cautiously so as not to make the same mistakes as centralization.
Original title: “Web3: Beyond the Social Traps of Web2”
Written by: Status
Translation: Rhythm Research Institute
Facebook changed its parent company’s name to Meta, which may be the most “exciting” news last week.
For most people, the name Meta means that Facebook led by Zuckerberg will enter the Metaverse metaverse. However, many people also joked that Meta might mean “Manipulate Everyone Through Ads” (to control everyone through advertising).
As we all know, Facebook’s profit model is just two words: advertising, and everything else can be ignored. And the ultimate goal of the company is to maximize the interests of shareholders, so the ridicule of Manipulate Everyone Through Ads is not so difficult to understand: using the more immersive advertising in the metaverse to more profoundly affect users’ consumption and other behaviors.
The current centralized companies have collected all kinds of users’ privacy information and browsing habits. When various companies iterate their products into the metaverse, the data generated by users will increase exponentially, and the users at that time will really become It is a plaything that the company makes profit at will.
This article is from Status, a Web3.0 tool provider, and details the crimes committed by companies in the Web2.0 era. Rhythm BlockBeats translated the full text:
On Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Google+, Twitter, SnapChat, LinkedIn, Clubhouse platforms, hundreds of millions of users’ login information, messages, identities, resumes, personal introductions, phone numbers, screenshots, GPS data, audio recordings, and Various information, such as authoritative factions, sexual orientation, and sensitivity to advertisements judged by artificial intelligence, are being resold.
You must have noticed it-Facebook is going to charge users, WhatsApp has changed its privacy policy (users will not be able to use the software if they don’t agree), Clubhouse is hoarding data, and Reddit is also censoring it frantically.
The big experiment in the Web2 era is coming to an end. We have all the data we need, and the Web2 company has all the personal data they can get. What can we see from it? ——
Centralized companies will not maximize the interests of users.
Users are nothing more than products.
Your right to privacy has long been taken away.
Your comments will be censored by the platform.
Your data is not secure.
Authority controls your data and speech.
“Open source that everyone loves” is not the real source code.
Centralization hinders the democratization process.
We can do better, and it’s time to put an end to Web2.
The motivation of the centralized Web2 company conflicts with the users, and large-scale private data is leaked as a result. At the same time, this makes the influence of authority interference more serious, data security is difficult to guarantee, and various services cannot operate independently.
Your interest incentives are not the same
Centralized companies’ goal of profitability is not a big problem in itself, but they do not take care of the user experience while making profits. This is the problem.
Of course, users are pursuing a better user experience, and of course centralized companies also want to make money. Sometimes these two visions can have both: the company increases its user base by providing a good user experience. But sometimes, the two are not compatible: Facebook will use your personal data to make money, and seek higher profits from users by sacrificing user experience.
More broadly, what a centralized company needs to achieve is to maximize shareholder profits, not to maximize user experience. If there is a conflict between the two, the company will definitely give priority to ensuring profits.
Centralized companies are eager to obtain your personal data. This is because as long as your data falls into their hands, coupled with your unconscious cooperation, they can use the data to make money. Not only that, in the process, they can earn you more money, because they can take this opportunity to promote products to you, and even let you participate in voting, as Cambridge Analytica confirmed .
Part of the success of DeFi lies in the incentive structure of its decentralized organizations and protocols: they are turned into public products, the profit model and process of various services are clear and transparent, and they will not steal user data for sale.
These services are so successful because the motivations of their creators and users are the same, and their creators are also users . There is no absolute boundary between the two.
The Web3 social network will definitely surpass Web2, because it will no longer sacrifice user experience in order to maximize benefits, nor will it leak users’ personal privacy.
Authorities will say, “Security or privacy, which one would you choose?”
Authorities that are public (or less public) often say: In order to protect your personal safety, you cannot have any privacy. Encrypted communication? Criminals use this. After all, if you have no secrets, there is nothing to worry about .
Authoritative interference makes it difficult for companies that want to protect user privacy. In November 2020, a German court ordered Tutanota, an email service platform known for its privacy protection, to monitor an account and order it to hand in all clear text emails sent and received by the account.
Reddit was also ordered to monitor an account in real time for several years (2016-2017, 2019-2020) and report the communication metadata of the account . Reddit, Google, and Facebook all have relevant guidelines on how to efficiently submit search warrants and subpoenas. Ancestry.com and 23andme.com two sites even in the case you’ve never used them, we can make the inference of your DNA .
Using a centralized Web2 service means that you agree to give your personal information to the authority, because as long as the authority or related Web2 companies believe that you have made some mistakes, your private data will be transferred immediately. Once your data is taken away, you can never get it back. Even if they find that you have been wronged, it will be of no avail. If you are lucky enough, the authority may return your private data to you, but before that, someone has read the data and learned about your behavior, consumption habits, and browsing history. This is already overwhelming.
Indian authorities are forcing Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter to help censor all the information they want to censor and record metadata that can identify users posting such information. Not only that, Reddit has also been conducting reviews in the name of individuals or for multiple authorities for a long time . So, as long as centralization still exists, mandatory review will never end.
User safety is not guaranteed
Equifax once had an opportunity for hackers due to insufficient security systems, and more than 163 million people lost their private data. Their names, birthdays, addresses, social security numbers, and bank card numbers were all stolen. That year, the privacy data of more than half of the adults in the United States were leaked out.
Since 2013, Facebook has had at least 5 data breaches. The leaked content included passwords (because passwords were still stored in clear text in 2019), phone numbers, names, and birthdays. The leak in 2019 even affected 540 million accounts. Facebook explained that the leaks were all “old data” and would not make any suggestions to users about this incident.
Yahoo claims that it has encountered the largest data breach in its history : the names, birthdays, email addresses, phone numbers, secret answers and password hashes of 3 billion users have all been leaked.
A center of finance company, First American Corporation, has lost 885 million post data is easy to record, social security number, account records.
Marriott International Group has leaked the names, emails, phone numbers, passport numbers and travel records of more than 300 million guests due to a data breach that lasted for many years.
Democracy still cannot defeat authority
In 2018, more than 3,100 Google employees asked the company to stop serving the US Department of Defense’s artificial intelligence computer vision project. They insisted that Google should not “help develop warfare technology.” Google finally chose to compromise and did not renew the contract for the project.
However, the efforts of those Google employees who yearned for peace were soon in vain, and within two years Google reached another project agreement with the Ministry of Defense. This incident is more widely circulated than other stories about the conflict between the company’s decision-making and the employees’ wishes, and it has also attracted considerable attention. If you have ever had such an experience, you have clearly found that your boss or manager did something wrong, but he refused to accept any suggestions, you should be able to understand the current dilemma facing centralization.
What will Web3 look like
In Web3, all of us are architects and can participate in the construction of Web3, and at least for now, it has developed very well. Even so, we should also proceed with caution to avoid making the same mistakes as centralization. Smart contracts and blockchain have provided us with a good foundation, but it is still far from enough. We also need a strong community to establish end-to-end encrypted communication, and use non-custodial wallets and tools to prevent centralization in the Crypto field. And use anti-censorship agreements to resist authority. In short, we must continue to establish a sound Web3 related infrastructure.
Decentralized platforms will not treat you as a product, they can provide you with better services, and their security performance is more guaranteed. Not only that, such platforms are less susceptible to interference from authority, and are more resistant to systemic failures , and can better maintain autonomy, personal privacy, and freedom of speech.
Web3 social reduces the trust burden of participation. In such a social network, you no longer need to disclose your personal privacy data for the use of the network. This also means that you no longer need to trust a centralized authority.
DeSo (or W3So), IPFS, DAO, DeX’s, DeFi: Many future Web3 tools are now available, they can protect your data, defend your privacy, and fight for freedom.
Source link: www.theblockbeats.com
