Toward a Solid Acceptance of the Decentralized Web of Personal Data: Societal and Technological Convergence

Abstract

Citizens using common on-line services such as social media, health tracking, or online shopping effectively hand over control of their personal data to the service providers — often large corporations. The services using and processing personal data are also holding the data. This situation is problematic, as has been recognized for some time: competition and innovation are stifled; data is duplicated; and citizens are in a weak position to enforce legal rights such as access, rectification, or erasure. The approach to address this problem has been to ascertain that citizens can access and update, with every possible service provider, the personal data that providers hold of or about them — the foundational view taken in the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).