Tim Berners-Lee: We're not asking (Facebook/Google) permission

The man who implemented the first ever successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and server via the internet in 1989 has decided to destroy Facebook and Twitter and all the other data collecting Deep State programs overnight. He's launching a new platform called Inrupt.


the new platform will allow users to have complete control over their information ‘pods’ (an acronym for “personal online data store”) — it is only they who will decide whether outside apps and sites will be granted access to it, and to what extent.

Unlike Facebook or Twitter where all user information ultimately resides in centralized data centers and servers under control of the companies, applications on Inrupt will compete for users based on the services they can offer, and only the users can grant these apps “views” into their data, making personal data instantly portable between similar applications.

“We are not talking to Facebook and Google about whether or not to introduce a complete change where all their business models are completely upended overnight. We are not asking their permission.”

Inrupt debuted in October. The media didn't rush to inform you of this. https://www.inrupt.com/

Tags: 
Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

detroitmechworks's picture

And with very little attention, the Media will not hesitate to complete ignore and destroy an innovation if it threatens the bottom line.

I expect a nice fraud allegation, sexual misconduct allegation, or racism allegation before anybody hears about it. Earlier if it starts getting traction.

1948 wasn't that long ago.

up
0 users have voted.

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

@detroitmechworks Actually, there's already waaay too much money behind it for the likelihood of "successful," early intervention by the status quo. That being said, I'm sure "they" will try. (Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc., do NOT like it when others attempt to piss on their fire hydrant. As the saying goes, these days: "If it's online and it's free, YOU are the product.")

(I've been commenting and writing about Berners-Lee's SOLID project for awhile. Inrupt is, essentially, Solid's "infrastructure." A family member of a close business acquaintaince is running SOLID's media work.)

up
0 users have voted.

"Freedom is something that dies unless it's used." --Hunter S. Thompson

Lookout's picture

But I'm not quite sure how it works. Is the idea people unplug from facebook and twitter to use inrupt? Or would people access their FB through their inrupt pod?

After browsing the site, am I correct in thinking it is like an operating system?

Thanks for the heads up. I look forward to seeing where it leads.

up
0 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Pluto's Republic's picture

@Lookout

...above their heads, nicely encrypted, that follows them around Wink They can share parts at times if they wish, and then take them back. They can even have a range of identities they use for different purposes. Any tracking that takes place within their cloud they select for their own convenience and enjoyment, until they delete it. Essentually, people will actualize themselves over time as they learn, gain experience, and hone their aspirations. It will not be quite so easy to smear them, shame them, and ruin their careers and lives by exposing their novel experimentation with life, love, and the world. Their cheats or stumbles or failures or embarrassments live in their encypted cloud. They own the rights to their persecutions or prosecutions, their victories or victimizations that occured along the way to becoming who they fully are.

And then, there's our metadata. Corprations seek to acquire, commoditize, and exploit the detailed metadata of each human life. But that is theft. The individual is the legal owner of the details of his daily life. It is vauable and it is not to be stripped from him like so much is in the predatory system we inhabit. It reminds me of slavery.

Now that's just a conceptual guess. I like to think there are vast arrays of meshing and distributed security, that Kim Dotcom spoke of. That comes close to lifting the Internet off the physical backbone it occupies, which is what makes it vulnerable to fascist-state control, censorship, propaganda, psyops, and false narratives that are degrading the medium, the message, and our minds — and holding us hostage.

Our leaders have shown they are not fit to handle any of this. And they do not have the capacity to learn.

up
0 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

the censorship of the internet. The government using private industry to kill free speech in American is particularly odious. Political parties cannot be reformed. They must be destroyed.

up
0 users have voted.

"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

@dkmich @dkmich

For years it has bothered me that the internet has been "commoditized", as microsloth put it in the infamous Halloween memos when they realized they were missing a giant profit opportunity. It's bothered me that this network, designed and implemented on the public dollar, has been hijacked by corporations who feel entitled to own our lives and communications. Just a few megacorps own most of the traffic and the content now, and turned it into a privatized "free" market tug of war, where we're the rope. Censorship is just an artifact of ownership.

Berners-Lee must be trying to make up for inventing the .com domain. He did that, didn't he?

I haven't read the inrupt page yet, but I've been dying to see an open-source, open-licensed version of online communications, more like the now-antique bulletin boards than Zuckbook. Of course, the Power will still hold the kill switch and monitor and record all traffic, but it would be great to get the corps off our backs.

I'm sick of corps making us adopt infantile babble-words like google and twitter.

Yep, cue the accusations and slander (they're proactive; now Bernie's on the sex carpet), but subverting zuckbook and tooter can only be good.

edit: shpelling

up
0 users have voted.
SnappleBC's picture

@dkmich

To sum it up:

Hierarchical systems will always evolve towards corruption. The reason is simple. Such a simple inevitably concentrates valuable resources and the pipes along which those resources flow provide more and more tempting targets for leeches. Decentralized systems like blockchain (and inrupt for that matter), do not offer any centralized pipe to attach to.

The Inrupt people have a lot of work to do as do the SOLID folks. I'll be interested to see how the permissions in this system evolve and particularly how my data remains secure and/or private even after it is released to a 2nd party. Still, I am excited as I see "tech" respond to the threat.

I have a firm conviction. This is the information age. In the information age, information will flow and stopping it is not really possible. What limits people right now is not the availability of information but their ability to question the narrative.

up
0 users have voted.

A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

Way too complicated and limited free access. There is a FB clone out there called MeWe. Totally free with no censorship. I don't know why it can't gain traction.

up
0 users have voted.

"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

@dkmich @dkmich I was excited for MeWe but after a year I realize it's more like google+ than facebook. You join groups. Nothing can go viral. It lacks the social exchange. You just sing to the choir there.

up
0 users have voted.

This has been a "slow build" for at least a year or two. Now, they're going public with a branding of the infrastructure. (Inrupt will probably be an integral branding name for the software's infrastructure, within some sort of corporate entity, so I've read. See my comment upthread for links, etc.)

up
0 users have voted.

"Freedom is something that dies unless it's used." --Hunter S. Thompson

mimi's picture

the new platform will allow users to have complete control over their information ‘pods’ (an acronym for “personal online data store”)it is only they who will decide whether outside apps and sites will be granted access to it, and to what extent.

No more admins who tell me not to redact, not to delete my own words. I think I yelled once on TOP that I want my comments back, because they are mine and not yours. I guess they thought

I am mentally ga-ga to say something like it. Now if Berner-Lee offers that, I am all in. Even if I don't understand what it really means what his platform is offering.

Hell yeah. JtC you will not love it, right? And people ask if they can use facebook and twitter through that operating system/platform/infrastructure? Heck, be happy if you don't have to go through those sites. I hope to never have to use paypal by default anymore.

Can't even boycott facebook and twitter? To hell with that kind of shizophrenia. Either you boycott or you don't.

Ah ranting is sometimes such a good feeling.
Peace nevertheless. Nothing for Ungood. I trust Berner-Lee to do the right thing. It's about time.

up
0 users have voted.

@mimi @mimi

like a bulletin board than the zuckbook or tooter "social media" app, but since I've never belonged to either of the latter I can't really say. Discussion more than "announcing".
But I imagine JtC won't have a problem with it, right fella? Apples and durians, I think.

I'll definitely be checking it out.

edit: shpelling

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@pindar's revenge

up
0 users have voted.

@pindar's revenge
although I don't have accounts with FB or twitter nor do I visit sites that practice heavy tracking. What it would be nice for though is Google, it's tough using the web and avoiding their trackers, it seems like half the web is disabled if you don't allow Google scripts and cookies. The Google super cookie is something I'd really like see gone too.

It would have no bearing on this site though.

up
0 users have voted.

@JtC

That I have to acquiesce and accept some "giggle" material (which is truly pervasive) are my credit unions, and not always then, and I always dump cache and cookies and flash cookies when I'm done. Most browsers make that easy. I do the usual hygeine of disabling 3rd party cookies. I miss some content by running Noscript -- there's a whole lot of whitespace for me on this site -- but I still get the meat. This is why I copy and paste links, rather than embed videos. I've been told that embedding videos subjects people to "giggle" tracking, even if we don't run the vid. I suspect Noscript blocks even that tracking.

i have a feeling that we would be glad to have inrupt sister sites to enrich this one.

OT: can we upload pictures from our home computers? Most of the methods seem to be to embed them from the cloud or online, which I never use. Copy and paste doesn't work. Any advice?

Excuse my rambling post; it's my beddy-bye time.

Cheers, All!

up
0 users have voted.

@pindar's revenge
I use all the security measures that you mention also, but there are times that you can't get around Google.

OT: can we upload pictures from our home computers? Most of the methods seem to be to embed them from the cloud or online, which I never use. Copy and paste doesn't work. Any advice?

See the FAQ: "How to embed an image in an essay or comment", Method 2 or method 3 will do what you ask. Mouse hover the "Navigation" button in the banner header to find the FAQs link..

up
0 users have voted.

@mimi
most sites wont let you edit your comments, on those sites if you write it you're stuck with it, The program that this essay is about would be of no use to you as far as what you write about, but it will help with the data that is collected as you visit various sites.

This site collects no data except who you voted for in the last election, what kind of foot powder you use, and what you had to eat last night. Other than that you have no worries.

up
0 users have voted.
Deja's picture

@JtC
I use anti-perspirant/deodorant on mine. I'm such a fringe, radical. Wink

up
0 users have voted.

@Deja
all about it!

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@JtC @JtC
and meningitis. I don't care for nothing anymore. And I don't know nothing about all of it. Why bother? (Am I good at double negatives or what?)

up
0 users have voted.
Alligator Ed's picture

1. Will Solid components be more hack-resistant than current programs, especially social media?

2. Does anyone seriously think that Internet Billionaires, like Eric Schmidt are going to let this happen unchallenged--by fair means or foul?

up
0 users have voted.