My dream is of an internet where users are in control of their data, an internet where users will be able to track their data and see how it is used. Accomplishing something like this will be very challenging, but given time and effort, we can become close. The perfect internet may never come to exist, but an internet that is safer and respects privacy more than it does today will.

Current efforts to protect user privacy online have all been built around anonymization and data hiding. I think that corporations need to have an incentive to protect user data. If the incentive is strong enough, corporations will move away from exploiting user data and start protecting user data. Internet users shouldn’t have to hide from the internet to avoid things like targeted advertisements and the invasion of privacy.

I think the only solution to this problem involves harmony between corporations and users. Corporations should work together with users to keep their data safe in exchange for something. What that something is, I do not know, but there should be a way for corporations to make as much money as they do (or pretty close) without exploiting user data.

Another solution is to create more competition by creating secure alternatives to social media and internet services that exploit user data. Increasing competition will allow users to have more freedom over which social media website or internet service they use.