Control Your Personal Data in Web3 with Web3 Domains
Jun 28, 2022·Last updated on Jun 28, 2022Share this article:
Today, data has become the most valuable resource in the world. It’s the backbone of most companies’ business models.
Tech companies like Facebook and Google have grown into behemoths because they collect a combination of your personal information, online activity, and the content you create and monetize it, either selling or giving access to it to other companies.
Today, your data is gathered by the platforms you use in non-transparent ways. The best case scenario is that data is used to improve your user experience. The worse case scenario is that your privacy is breached and weaponized against you.
Your personal data is valuable because it represents the blueprint of your digital life. Your data is sacred, and it should be yours to own and control.
There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Lunch
Digital advertising is primarily how Web2 companies generate profit, and this is done by mining and using your personal data.
Many Web2 platforms are “free” to use, offering people access to their software in exchange for their data. Through this exchange, a handful of platforms ended up dominating the internet and its users’ attention. Five of the world's largest Web2 companies (Google, Facebook, Alibaba, TikTok owner Bytedance and Amazon) generated ad sales of $374bn in 2021 – making up more than half (53%) of the market. These companies allow you to create an account and use their platforms for free.
But, how is all this possible if it’s free to use?
Simple, they monetize their users’ data by selling access to those user’s attention from companies that can use highly targeted ads. A whole industry of data brokers consisting of companies you may not know exist have flourished in the data economy. Data brokers aggregate your data and then sell to advertisers, oftentimes without your knowledge or consent. On today’s internet, buying and selling personal data is the de facto business model.
When you use “free” sites or apps online, it comes at the cost of your personal data.
To be honest, using any site or app on Web2 still comes with this cost. There are many companies that don’t sell the data they collect, but they may provide access to your data. Recently, PayPal disclosed that it shares consumer data (like name, address, phone number, date of birth, IP address, bank account information) with hundreds of third party entities. There are countless other companies that do the same.
Think about how many accounts you have. For each account, think about what kind and how much data you have shared. You willingly share personal info like your name, date of birth, contact details and address. You may also provide more sensitive info such as credit card and bank details. In addition to this data, you also indirectly share data about yourself from your online activity: every like on Facebook, every Google search, and even your facial features when using Snapchat or Instagram filters. All the content we create, all the engagement with that content, and all our interactions with others online is also data that may be used for ad targeting, resold or simply shared to third party entities.
This puts your personal data at risk.
For each account you create, your information is stored in that platform’s database. Your data can then be given to other companies, but you don’t always know what data is shared and which third parties it is shared with. There have been countless data breaches in 2021 and 2022. Malicious third party actors gain access to your personal information and online activity that can be used against you. Time and time again, companies withhold information on what data hackers collect, so you may never know what data hackers have of you.
Your personal data will always be at risk when companies have 100% control of your data.
An Internet Where You Control Your Personal Data
Web3 aims to grant individuals authority over their digital lives and protect data privacy. At Unstoppable Domains, we believe that people should own their digital identity and have full control of their personal data. There are two important aspects to having full control of your personal data: data sovereignty and data interoperability.
Data Sovereignty
Data sovereignty means you, and only you, are able to decide who (what apps) get access to your data, what data you want to share with those apps and how your data is used. If you don’t want to share your home address and bank account info, you don’t have to!
In today’s internet, you have to opt-out of data sharing. And it’s not always easy to opt-out either.
Think about your Facebook account. It’s like going through a maze just to find out what data they are collecting, but it’s also difficult to figure out how to opt-out of sharing certain data. It should be easy to decide what data to share.
At Unstoppable Domains, we take a different approach. You should be able to opt-in to sharing specific data that you want to. And the power to revoke that access at any time.
We believe that control over your data starts by owning your digital self-sovereign identity. Web3 Domains - a powerful self-sovereign data container - makes this possible. A Web3 Domain, in its simplest form, is a digital name (example: unstoppable.nft) that exists as NFTs on the blockchain. So once you own it, it’s yours. No other entity can mess with it or take it away from you, not even us!
With an Unstoppable Domain, you are able to opt-in to the data you want to store on your Web3 Domain and the data you want to share with apps.
All the data you store on your Web3 Domain is your choice, such as Domain Profiles, Profile Badges, Humanity Check, and much more!
Data Interoperability
Web3 is throwing a decentralized party and you can 🎉BYOD🎉(Bring Your Own Data).
Get ready to party across the internet. When you can bring your data wherever you go, your data is interoperable.
Data interoperability is the ability to access your private data from the various apps you use and move it freely amongst apps and blockchains.
Moving data across apps was difficult, if not impossible, in Web2 because big tech companies created walled gardens for their solutions. This lead to your personal data being locked into application silos. That’s why, for example, your Uber ratings can’t be used on Lyft even though they collect similar types of data. Well, this is going to be a less pressing issue in the future.
Because Web3 is based on non-custodial solutions (aka the platform doesn’t store your data), data interoperability is possible! We believe your self-sovereign identity, like your Web3 Domain, will be able to point to your data across the many apps and services you use. And you can take that data wherever you go using our Login with Unstoppable solution.
Login with email is the past.
Login with Unstoppable - the first single-sign-on service built on Ethereum - was made so you can securely carry your unique username and data to log into both Web2 and Web3 apps. It supercharges your Web3 Domain as it enables you to have control over what personal data you share with sites and services.
While wallets are great for storing your digital assets, they can’t identify unique users. And one person can have multiple wallet addresses across the many blockchains. Web3 Domains support on-chain data, like wallet activity and Badges, and off-chain data like email addresses and much more to come. And you can associate all your wallets and data with Web3 Domains and start to BYOD.
At Unstoppable Domains, we believe the internet should be owned by people, not companies. That’s why we want to give you control over the most valuable resource on the internet: your personal data. And we welcome others in the Web3 space to partner with us so we can put data sovereignty and data interoperability at the forefront.