Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, is working to repair the system he created through his Inrupt initiative.
The web has transformed how we access information and stay connected, especially when physical movement is limited. At the same time, it exposes our personal lives, thoughts, and homes in ways that can be exploited by corporations, governments, and malicious actors.
Berners-Lee has long spoken out about these problems.
Last November he helped launch a “contract for the web,” a document crafted over more than a year with input from companies and organisations including Google, Microsoft, the Web Foundation, and Wikimedia. The contract also received endorsements from platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, and from digital rights groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The contract sets out seven priorities to improve the web:
- Ensure affordable internet access is available to everyone
- Respect individual privacy and data rights
- Protect against governments cutting off internet access
- Foster strong communities that uphold civil discourse and human dignity
- Develop technologies that support humanity’s best qualities and challenge the worst
- Support creators and collaborators
- Defend and promote the open web
Inrupt is focusing on the second priority: restoring respect for individual privacy and data rights. Documentaries such as The Social Dilemma have raised public awareness about the kinds of data misuse Berners-Lee and his collaborators aim to address.
Founded two years ago, Inrupt is now unveiling its first product, the Inrupt Enterprise Solid Server. The name sounds technical and understated, but the approach is significant.
Personal data is stored in individual “pods” that users control. People can grant or revoke access to specific data for particular services, giving them granular control over who can see and use their information. A convenient analogy for iPhone users is how Apple manages Health data—except Solid is intended to handle many more types of personal information across the web.
Solid, a decentralized platform developed over two years of work at MIT, enables organisations to build applications that use data from users’ pods while leaving control in the hands of those users. This model aims to preserve the functionality services need while returning ownership and consent to individuals.
For Solid to succeed, it will require broad adoption. Users must be willing to store and organize their data in pods, and developers and organisations must support the model. That’s a substantial challenge, but growing public concern about privacy and data misuse makes interest in alternatives more likely.
Several prominent organisations have already joined pilot programs, including the BBC, the NHS, NatWest Bank, and the Flanders government. These early partnerships provide momentum, but many more participants will be necessary to turn Solid from an innovative concept into a widely used solution that addresses one of the web’s most urgent problems.
“Starting today, more organisations worldwide can take the first step towards building a trusted web where innovation flourishes, and everyone – businesses, developers, and web users – share the benefits,” Berners-Lee said.
“We hope you’ll join us on this exciting journey.”
(Image credit: Sir Tim Berners-Lee by Jarle Naustvik under CC BY 2.0 license)