In Web 3.0, Data Ownership And Monetization Must Belong To Individuals CEO of LegalShield and IDShield, protecting and empowering people through legal plans and privacy management solutions.
Technology has come a long way since the early days of the internet. When Web 1.0 emerged in the 1990s, it gave users access to searchable digital information and basic e-commerce, but it was cumbersome and disorganized.
Web 2.0, which began in the mid-2000s and continues today, is shaped by content and connectivity. Myriad platforms, applications and mobile devices made it easy for us to interact with others, stream content, shop, work and play with a click or a swipe.
Now we are on the cusp of a new era that will be defined by who controls data. Tech titans that have dominated the ecosystem of Web 2.0 have made a fortune from tracking and monetizing user data. The combined annual revenue of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft is around $1.2 trillion, according to earnings reports from 2021, a jump of more than 25% since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.
So far, users have not benefited from their data being monitored and sold, and public opinion is not satisfied with the status quo. A majority of Americans (81%) feel they have very little or no control over the data companies collect about them, and 79% are very or somewhat concerned about how companies use this data, according to a survey from Pew Research Center. Web 3.0 is poised to change the data ownership landscape and put the power back in the hands of users.