Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee's startup wants to restore people's control over their data
His project, Solid, is based on "personal empowerment through data."
Computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee wants to bring control over data back to you.
World wide web pioneer Tim Berners-Lee's startup, Inrupt, aims to bring data back to the people.
The computer scientist announced Inrupt's open source project, Solid, in a weekend blog post. It's "a platform based on the existing web" that gives you control over your personal information and allows you to decide where it's stored, who can view different elements and which apps can access it.
"Solid changes the current model where users have to hand over personal data to digital giants in exchange for perceived value. As we've all discovered, this hasn't been in our best interests," he wrote.
All of your data is stored in your Solid Pod, which are "like secure USB sticks for the web" and allow you use it with apps or move it as you see fit.
Berners-Lee was motivated to bring Solid to the real world by the misuse of Facebook by political operatives, he told Fast Company over the weekend. He also noted that Inrupt isn't collaborating with Facebook or Google on Solid.
Inrupt didn't immediately respond to a request for further comment.
