Who Owns the Data in a Blockchain Application - and Why It Matters

The internet has morphed from a unidirectional portal allowing users access to platforms, into a world where we knowingly – and sometimes unknowingly – create online profiles rife with our personal information, habits and preferences.
The current design and use of the internet results in the daily generation of terabytes of personal data. As such, it is essential that a potential user consider whether a platform’s design is intended to benefit or exploit consumers. Companies have focused on acquiring vast amounts of such data, and as such, recent privacy-focused legislation, like the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), have attempted to protect and empower individual users and reshape the way organizations approach data privacy. Unfortunately, recent events such as the Equifax hack and the unsolicited harvesting of personal data via Facebook have proven that it is a matter of when, not if, centrally stored data will be compromised. (Learn more about keeping your info private with 6 Free Ways to Take Control of Your Internet Privacy.)

Blockchain Enters the Equation

Blockchain technology represents the opportunity for a paradigm shift regarding the storage and use of your personal data, one that is able to remove central points of failure and empower individuals to control and monetize on their own data. A network drastically improves security over the underlying data. In addition, by preventing any single entity from controlling the information, blockchain removes the ability for these entities to sell or monetize your personal data. Instead, transaction data could be encrypted using a unique digital signature of the user (a private key), opening up the potential for users to monetize by decrypting parts of their own transaction history and personal data for advertisers or brands.

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