Privacy: Can We Protect Future Generations?

In 1989, while tinkering with a system to share scientific notes, a 34-year-old CERN scientist named Tim Berners-Lee invented something that would change everything.

You might have heard of it: the World Wide Web. Fast-forward three decades and 4.57 billion users later, he’s on a mission to save his creation. Specifically, save it from a mounting privacy problem.

In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal – in which the data of 87 million Facebook users was obtained without consent – Berners-Lee (now Prof Sir Tim BernersLee) has led numerous campaigns persuading governments to act. This notably includes 2019’s Contract for the Web calling for new global web regulations. Its overall impact? Limited. However, after years lobbying others to take charge, BernersLee himself is trying to turn our online world upside down (or, as he says, “the right way up”). His idea: Solid, a new system aiming to drastically decentralise the web. At its core, it’s a platform allowing you to store your private information in personal online data stores (Pods), which you have full power and sight over. While most sites and apps currently take your data and move it into a ‘silo’ out of your reach, Solid’s vision is for these services to ask permission to use specific information from your Pods – permission that, crucially, you can remove at any time. In short: it’ll be you who hold full control over your data, not Big Tech. While currently in its experimental stage, the platform is already trialling its system with British outfits like the NHS, BBC, NatWest and even the Belgian government. But how far will Solid spread? And could it truly fix the internet’s privacy problem alone? We put these questions to Berners- Lee.

Why does online privacy matter?