Concerns about data privacy are rising, and blockchain is the solution

Today’s consumers are willing to use their data for personalized transactions, but concerns about data privacy are also growing rapidly.In a survey by digital security and certificate issuing company Entrust, only 21% of respondents Believe Establish a global brand to ensure the security of their personal information.

As the pressure on data privacy of large technology companies increases, these companies have begun to invest heavily in security solutions.

Regulations around the world are evolving rapidly

Last year, as more and more people stayed at home due to the COVID-19 lockdown, internet usage increased. As usage increases, so does consumer awareness of how to use or abuse data. For example, a recent survey by Startpage, a privacy-focused search engine company, Find out 62% of Americans are more aware of how their data is used online, including ad targeting based on browsing history and location.

Related: The data economy is a dystopian nightmare

With increasing attention to how companies collect data, new laws in the United States and abroad are rapidly evolving to address these issues. In 2016, the EU adopted General Data Protection RegulationTwo years later, California signed the California Consumer Privacy Act, the strongest state-level privacy legislation in history. Since then, Virginia is the only state in the United States that has successfully passed a comprehensive bill, the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act.

As more and more states want to add consumer privacy protection laws, it is clear that users’ opinions and policies are changing. In other words, data privacy and its protection methods are extremely complex, and these useless bills may have the opposite effect—convincing consumers that their data is protected, when in fact, this is usually not the case.

Related: DPN and VPN: the dawn of decentralized network privacy

The company will invest in privacy and security technologies

At the beginning of 2020, millions of people have moved their lives online-go to school remotely and participate in virtual happy hours-exposing more personal data on the almost unregulated Internet. People not only integrate more data collection into their daily lives, but also convince them that location tracking can bring public health benefits.

Thanks to COVID-19, the depth of our data sharing flaws has been exposed. As we move forward, everyone must raise awareness and promote best practices in privacy and data protection.

Related: We don’t need an immunization passport, we need verifiable credentials

Is it possible to solve it?

As consumers expect to continue to promote privacy censorship, there is an opportunity to be a leader in this evolving field, but as new entrants prepare to enter the market, this opportunity will not last long.According to Crunchbase data, investors smoke Last year, US$7.8 billion was provided to cybersecurity companies, an increase of 22% from 2019 to 2020, and this year this figure is even higher in just six months, surpassing the US$9 billion mark.

Putting data ownership first, let’s look at the startups that pave the way for the post-pandemic world. From personal data cleaning to business-centric software designed to help companies comply with the law, these five startups are helping users regain control and ownership.

OpenMined is an open source community, and the company’s goal is to make the world more private by lowering the barriers to entry into private AI technology. Its mission is to create an accessible privacy tool and education ecosystem, which is achieved by extending popular libraries such as PyTorch with advanced technologies in cryptography and differential privacy. The company claims that through its service, individuals and organizations can host private data sets, allowing data scientists to train or query data that they “cannot see”. The data owner retains full control-the data will never be copied, moved or shared.

Anjuna provides hardware-level protection for data, applications, and workloads, virtually eliminating data insecurity. According to the team, it ensures that the application runs independently of its infrastructure, simplifying operations while locking down data security. The software enables IT to “lift and transfer” applications and data to the hardware encryption of a secure area, protecting them from malicious software, insiders, and bad actors.

Fortanix protects sensitive data across public, hybrid, multi-cloud, and private cloud environments, enabling customers to run the most sensitive applications in any environment. Fortanix stated that organizations are free to accelerate their digital transformation, combine and analyze private data, and provide secure applications that protect the privacy of their clients.

Duality Technologies meets the rapidly growing need for companies in regulated industries to collaborate on sensitive data. According to the company, the platform can perform security analysis on encrypted data and gain insights from sensitive data without exposing the data itself. Its technology can protect valuable analysis models from being exposed to external collaborators during the calculation process. Duality SecurePlus stated that the platform enables companies to use advanced encryption methods for real-world data collaboration, while complying with data privacy regulations and protecting their IP.

Leap Year construction technology solves these problems in a scalable, rigorous, and future-oriented way. According to the company’s statement, some of the world’s largest companies can break data silos, form data partnerships and accelerate the adoption of machine learning, all with mathematically proven privacy protections.

Related: No more excuses: digital ID solves the privacy dilemma

Demand for Web 3.0

Looking back, the social changes we experienced last year were important flashpoints, highlighting the huge flaws in the way the Internet exists today, the way data privacy laws are formulated, and the way large technology companies use our data to hide.

During the pandemic, companies such as Google, Facebook, Zoom, and Amazon have made huge profits. In the absence of consumer privacy and choice, Big Tech makes money by monetizing user data. Although yes, we do use these things every day, but these platforms on Web 2.0 are hotbeds of exploitation, hacking, and breeches.

Related: Resonates: DeFi’s domino effect on NFT and Web 3.0

As we adapt to the new world, blockchain will inevitably play a role in the decentralized future. Are you ready for the Web 3.0 revolution?

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