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How to Rebuild Trust in Tech

How to Rebuild Trust in Tech

It’s safe to say that reality has not lived up to the utopian vision of a highly advanced technological society. The optimism present in the 80s during the microchip boom and again in the 90s with the internet revolution has given way to a rather dreary outlook. This pessimistic view has various causes, including the proliferation of mass surveillance systems and the overall erosion of fundamental privacy rights. Can this be fixed? AXEL believes it can, but tech corporations will have to pursue alternative business models and practices for it to happen.  Let’s look at how we got into this mess and how we can get out of it.

Initial promise leads to technocratic dystopia?

So, where did this pessimism come from recently? After all, it was only a decade ago that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was touting his social media platform as a way for people all over the world to connect meaningfully. Social media and the convenience of Big Tech services were supposed to advance the human race. And, for a while, it appeared like they might. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter helped facilitate significant historical events, such as the 2010 Arab Spring[1]. However, as the years passed, it became apparent that these services had a darker side.

The Cambridge Analytica scandal first reported on in 2015 was the tipping point. It’s where Facebook got caught selling vast amounts of its users’ personal information to the data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica. This firm used the data in an attempt to influence the outcome of the 2016 United States elections. While it is unknown exactly how successful this was (after all, Ted Cruz’s ill-fated campaign was the first to use this data), what was obvious is that Facebook collected and sold an alarming amount of information without consent.

Looking back, people should have known all along. Enormous tech platforms require thousands of skilled employees and significant backend infrastructure to maintain. Since they are typically free to use, how do they make money? Personalized advertising due to mass surveillance.

Trust in Big Tech hits all-time lows

Since the Cambridge Analytica scandal, education regarding how Big Tech analyzes and sells data has improved. The average consumer now understands that there shouldn’t be an expectation of privacy when using these services. In fact, according to a 2020 survey, over 85% of people are “very concerned” about how companies like Facebook and Google handle their personal data[2]. We feel this is a great trend, but there will need to be an aggressive demand from consumers for better privacy protections for any actual progress. The unfortunate truth is that even if there is a tacit understanding of the current reality, consumers either feel trapped in the situation or are otherwise willing to put up with the status quo.

This is evidenced by a 2019 panel discussion where business leaders and academics talked about the ethics of data collection[3]. Throughout the roundtable, the majority of the audience and the panel itself agreed to give up their privacy for small monetary benefits.

We believe this line of thinking is short-sighted and naïve. One point that kept coming up was that most trusted the firms collecting their data not to misuse it and to protect it. We know from countless stories that neither of these assumptions is prudent. Not only will companies sell data without consent, but they can’t guarantee hackers won’t pilfer it illicitly. Even organizations spending adequate resources on cybersecurity get compromised routinely. Many of the largest businesses in the world have had terrible breaches. Putting that kind of faith in Big Tech’s trustworthiness will only end in disappointment.

The way forward

As a company that values user privacy, here are our tips for ushering in a new era of tech that delivers on the optimistic vision of previous generations:

Opt-in for advertising rather than opt-out. So far, organizations attempting to remedy privacy concerns have relied on providing opt-out clauses for data collection. We feel this puts the burden on the consumers, who tend to be busy. Most people don’t read privacy policies or want to click through a maze of links to get to the opt-out page. Privacy should be the default. If there really are benefits worthy of people giving up their personal info, the company should state their case clearly and provide a link to opt-in to the advertising.

Move away from free-to-use business models. We’ve covered this topic in a previous blog, but it’s a necessary shift if people truly value privacy. Free software and services create bad incentives to misuse data because it’s the only way to monetize users. This can be alleviated by normalizing paid software again. Consumers didn’t always have the expectation of free software. With a coordinated education outreach, paid software may make a comeback.

Transparency. One of the most disturbing aspects of the Cambridge Analytica scandal was that Facebook sold information without consent. If an organization wants to offer free services to those who opt-in to personalized advertising, it should go the extra mile and be transparent about how it uses that data. This would lead to fewer surprises and major scandals. Users could make informed decisions and weigh the tradeoffs accordingly.

AXEL leads the way

At AXEL, we provide data storage and sharing solutions that prioritize privacy and security. Not only is our leading platform, AXEL Go, built with secure implementations of blockchain technology, decentralized servers, and robust encryption, but our entire data collection policy centers around the philosophy that less is more. Just take a look at AXEL Go compared to other popular cloud drives. AXEL does not collect data linked to your identity. Period.

You can sign up for a free trial of our Premium AXEL Go service today and get the peace of mind that nobody is mining your content or selling your data. We can bring about change together. Join the privacy revolution.

Jose Antonio Vargas, “How an Egyptian Revolution Began on Facebook”, The New York Times, Feb. 17, 2012, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/books/review/how-an-egyptian-revolution-began-on-facebook.html

[2] Allen Bernard, “Most consumers do not trust big tech with their privacy”, TechRepublic, July 29, 2020,  https://www.techrepublic.com/article/most-consumers-do-not-trust-big-tech-with-their-privacy/

[3] “How can we rebuild trust in the digital world? A discussion with Professor Michael Sandel”, Fujitsu.com, May 16,2019, https://www.fujitsu.com/global/vision/insights/201905event/

Projects We Love: PrivacyWall

This is part of our series highlighting startups who share our mission of trying to bring data privacy back to users.

You’ve had a rough week, maybe it’s a relationship or health problem, but either way, you’re feeling down. Fortunately, your family is there for you, and reach out to console you through a few private messages on social media.

Mom: “I know it’s expensive, I’m sorry your health care doesn’t cover it, we’ll do what we can to help you pay.”

Dad: “Don’t worry sport, she’s just going through a phase, I’m sure you guys will work through it.”

Friend: “Hey man, let’s meet up for a drink this weekend, cheer up!”

After reading your messages, you lay down in bed to rest and start scrolling through social media to pass the time until you fall asleep, and you’re astounded by what you find.

Ads.

But not just the usual ads for food, or some new tech gadget.

“Lower your healthcare costs now! Save 20% off market rate plans!”

“Relationship trouble? Local family counseling is available!”

“Cheapest beer in town, and half-price shots on Fridays!”

Maybe it’s just coincidence, or maybe every single thing you say or do online is being tracked and sold to advertisers… That “free” social media website has to make money somehow.

And that’s where PrivacyWall comes in- a startup that is returning data privacy and security to users. By blocking unwanted data collection by everyone from Facebook to Google, PrivacyWall puts you back in the driver’s seat.

Why PrivacyWall?

Every website you visit, every search you type in, every message you send and photo you post, it’s all tracked, recorded, and monitored. PrivacyWall is the “off” switch we’ve been waiting for.

By blocking over 3,000+ trackers from many of the largest tech companies in the world you can once again browse the internet without fear of being tracked like the target of a CIA investigation. We expect privacy in our homes, and we should get the same treatment on the internet.

PrivacyWall even blocks Facebook Connect from building a shadow profile of your online activity when you are not on Facebook. If you didn’t know, that convenient “log-in with Facebook” turns that account you just signed up for into another data collection point for Facebook to build a profile on you.

If you didn’t know that, you aren’t alone. And that’s exactly why PrivacyWall blocks threats you don’t even know about yet. Because you shouldn’t have to become a security expert and worry about your private information being leaked just because you used Facebook to sign-up for a food delivery app, or a dating site, or anything.

You deserve privacy, and PrivacyWall is a step towards a more private world.

Q&A With The Developers Of AXEL IPFS

Q&A With The Developers Of AXEL IPFS

We sat down with AXEL’s development team to discuss their AXEL IPFS Pinning Facility.

Q: What inspired you to develop AXEL IPFS?

The next evolution of computing is distributed. IPFS or something very similar is going to be the basis of distributed storage. The AXEL IPFS integration into our ecosystem has given us a worldwide public distributed storage system to build practically anything on top of including AXEL IPFS Pinning, AXEL IPFS Search, and many other services to come. AXEL is building a very strong foundation in distributed storage and will be a leader in the next evolution of Web 3.0!

Q: What excites you the most about AXEL IPFS?

AXEL IPFS will allow our users to immediately and securely distribute their data around the world for personal or business use. AXEL will be fostering the movement from centralized to decentralized computing and AXEL IPFS is the start of the process. For AXEL users, they can share files or even distribute website information with IPFS. It is very exciting to bring Web 3.0 technology to the masses. AXEL has made it super easy to use, which is very important when you want to increase the adoption of complex technologies like IPFS.

Q: Do you see a future for IPFS and what industries will adopt it first?

Web 3.0 will be distributed. IPFS seems likely to be a core technology of Web 3.0 and the distributed Internet. Right now archivists, service providers, researchers, developers, and content creators have begun to adopt IPFS to address many problems caused by centralized computing. IPFS also addresses many issues around high-latency networks found in developing countries. Even NASA is using similar systems to address the high-latency involved in space communications. So there is a lot going on in this field. With that said, though, it is still very new. AXEL is bringing this technology to users today by making it secure and easy to use so anyone can take advantage. I think it will be interesting to see how IPFS develops and is integrated into more and more consumer products. 

Q: What industries will IPFS be the death blow for? Is there a future for cybersecurity in a distributed web?

I do not think we are talking extinction but evolution. Current centralized systems will evolve into decentralized/distributed systems as users demand the flexibility, security, and efficiency of decentralized/distributed systems. The only companies that will go extinct are those that fail to evolve or evolve without taking into account customer needs. And as far as cybersecurity goes, as long as we use computers and the human condition remains as it is, cybersecurity will also be a lucrative and in-demand career.

Q: How much will AXEL IPFS cost to use?

The IPFS is the backbone for our private, secure file-sharing and cloud storage platform; AXEL Go. You can sign up for a free Basic account and receive 2GB of online storage and enough network fuel for hundreds of typical shares. Power users or enterprise customers have a choice of pricing tiers to accommodate their specific needs. 

Q: Is IPFS the death of HTTP?

In the computer industry, protocols die hard. As much as we want to criticize the problems with centralized computing, it has provided one of the greatest revolutions in mankind’s history. Never before have so many had access to almost the entire world’s knowledge. Individuals and entrepreneurs have tapped into this knowledge to develop some incredibly cool tech over these past 20 years. So, HTTP has been a great success, and it will not disappear quickly. But as 5G becomes more prevalent and developing countries increase their demand for data, decentralized and distributed technologies will be selected as the protocol over HTTP. It is also interesting to note that Tim Berners-Lee who created the HTTP protocol and the World Wide Web is now working on the next distributed/decentralized protocol. It is one of the greatest qualities of humans, we never stop creating.

Q: Do you have any concerns that content on IPFS can’t be removed or censored?

Yes, absolutely. There are clearly certain types of information that are not suited for publication anywhere at any time, such as child pornography or sex trafficking. Universally, this type of abhorrent information has no place on IPFS or anywhere else on the internet for that matter. When it is so universal and clear-cut like this, AXEL will do everything in its power to prevent this content from being listed on IPFS.

Q: What was the most challenging aspect of developing AXEL IPFS?

The IPFS is still actively being developed and there are always difficulties with anything new and in-development. But otherwise, I have been developing technology for over 30 years and with that experience, you learn how to be diligent and get it done the right way.

Q: What does AXEL IPFS do that sets it apart from any other IPFS platform?

We believe our IPFS integration is the most easy-to-use, intuitive solution on the market. In the past, IPFS pinning required extensive technical knowledge or expensive third party services. We’ve eliminated both barriers and made utilizing this decentralized technology simple and affordable. For instance, with AXEL Go, the process isn’t any more complicated than using other popular cloud storage and sharing applications. And it doesn’t get much more affordable than a free Basic account! 

Q: How can someone help or participate in the project?

Join us on Discord or Telegram and get involved. Telegram has a lot of great community activity and Discord is where the Devs hang out. Come chat with us! There are so many ways to get involved, ask any of the channel admins and they’d be happy to help!

The Distributed Future

According to Blade Runner, we only have 7 months left for the invention of sentient androids, but that seems unlikely at this point (I’m still hoping though). And we’re already four years late for Back to the Future’s flying cars and hover-boards. 

Looking back, all of these predictions seem a little bit silly in comparison to how fast technology has actually progressed. We don’t have androids, we don’t have flying cars, we don’t even have a printer that works without having to beg and plead for it to just print your document correctly for once. Physical tech has lagged behind our predictions. No matter how hard we work, there’s only so efficient you can make a chemical process, like the one that powers the batteries any of this tech would require. 

But what hasn’t slowed down… is digital technology. Smaller, lighter, and faster than anybody ever imagined even 30 years ago. Look at Blade Runner, they had sentient androids and still worked with magnetic tape recordings for data storage, not exactly a great prediction there Ridley Scott… 

The computing power in your cell phone dwarfs even the most advanced supercomputer of the early 1990s. And it doesn’t take up an entire warehouse and enough power to run a small town. And all you use it for is to watch cat videos on Youtube… really? 

So in a world where we’re all carrying around a supercomputer in our pocket, what are we going to do with it? (And please… don’t just say watch more cat videos, yes I know they’re adorable but come on, aim a little higher, please?) Why not run the internet ourselves? 

When we’re all running around with supercomputers, why should we be putting our trust in these large tech conglomerates when they’ve continually shown themselves, at best as ambivalent and at worst as downright negligible when it comes to our data privacy. Every other day it seems like there’s a new data breach, hack, or the company itself selling our private data to advertisers. They haven’t earned our trust, and even if they did at some point, they’ve certainly lost it by now. 

But we don’t have to anymore. We aren’t beholden to big tech if we are willing to take the plunge and dive into the distributed web. A web like our predecessors in the 80s imagined it, free to surf, send, and share without someone looking over your shoulder. A web free of censorship, where the only boundaries are our imaginations. A web hosted by people for people, not advertisers and tech monopolies. 

The distributed web is not the web like you’re used to though. It’s not some massive server farm hidden away in a warehouse, its independent server operators sharing the network load among them. It’s every one of us having the opportunity to participate in the governance of the internet. It’s freedom from control and freedom from censorship. 

It’s not just about escaping big tech though; it’s about building something better. Joining the distributed web doesn’t mean you don’t get to share photos and videos with your friends, it means sharing content in a way that doesn’t compromise your data privacy. It’s about creating a web where you are in ultimate control of your data, your privacy, and your life. 

Welcome to the future of the internet.

AXEL IPFS Is Out Now

Two weeks ago we released the AXEL Wallet, the window into our blockchain and the basis of everything we plan to do. And now, it’s only getting better!

Not only have we released one of the best-designed blockchains on Earth, but we also integrated it with the most advanced IPFS platform out there. You no longer have to make a choice between privacy or convenience, you can have both. There already are ways to stay private online, but privacy often comes at the cost of your experience and is inconvenient. AXEL IPFS is the best of both worlds, it’s secure and encryption-enabled, while still being fast and free!

But more important than just the technology of the distributed web is the team who built it. No matter how great their product is, would you really want one of those big-tech conglomerates, who have continually monitored you, sold your data and abused your trust, starting the distributed web? Do you really trust them to have your best interest at heart? While they may have the right technology, their past behavior should make you wary of trusting them with something as important as the distributed web.

Unlike most tech companies our business is not in advertising, we don’t host ads and we don’t sell data. Our business is privacy; specifically, your privacy. It has always been our business and it always will be.

That’s why we started this project. Our entire company is based around privacy and data custody. For over a decade, our team has been working on products to give you back your data, and give you the option to divorce yourselves from the surveillance-web that’s been forced upon us by big tech. Every product and project we’ve worked on has been building towards this moment.

The distributed web is no longer something to talk about as something that’s coming, it’s here. We built it, for you. AXEL IPFS is already the most advanced IPFS-integrated blockchain, and it’s just going to keep getting better with time! But now it’s your turn, show us what you can do with it, how you’d live your life, free from surveillance and censorship.

Welcome to the future of the internet, welcome… to AXEL IPFS.

How This Machine Learning App Will Help You Become the Next Picasso

**This is part of our series highlighting startups who share our mission of trying to make people’s lives just a little easier**

“Earth” without “art” is just “eh”, claims the headline on SketchAR’s homepage.

But not everyone’s the next Picasso or Van Gogh. Not everyone can craft a masterpiece like the Mona Lisa – until now. Or, at least, that’s what this new augmented reality app hopes to change.

Augmented reality has become huge over the past few years – we only have to look at the mind-blowing success of the Pokémon Go app that integrated the user’s actual location with graphics from the game itself. The game was so popular that everyone from prime ministers, reporters, and law enforcement officers were all having a go.

Bridging the gap between the real world and the digital one has become a huge trend in the tech industry, with multiple different types of apps and industries venturing into this crossover territory.

Today, AR is helping people do far more than just catch ‘em all. It’s helping them learn how to sketch, which is great news if even your stick figures leave much to be desired, like mine.

How SketchAR Makes an Artist Out of Anyone

The app works by overlaying a virtual image on a real-life piece of paper which shows up on the phone screen. Ideally, users need to get a tripod involved, as it can be difficult to hold the phone over the piece of paper in one hand while sketching with the other.

With a built-in selection of pre-made sketches, users can get started right away on perfecting their drawing skills, or they can upload and convert pictures from their own camera roll and turn them into traceable images.

Then comes the fun bit.

Once the user has chosen which image they want to sketch out from their screen onto a sheet of paper, they need to draw five circles around the edge of the page so the camera can recognize the canvas.

After that, the image aligns with the five circles and displays on the screen, allowing the user to go right ahead and trace, draw, sketch, and be creative.

At the moment, SketchAR can only be used on A4 paper, but there are big plans on the horizon. Soon, larger canvases will be available as well as built-in sensors to detect a physical location so mural artists can get involved as well.

The Future of AR Technology in Apps

AR isn’t a new technology.

In fact, the first AR headset was developed by Ivan Sutherland in 1968 with the term “augmented reality” later coined in 1990.

It wasn’t until 2009 when AR was integrated with the internet that things got really exciting, though.

So exciting, in fact, that the AR and VR market size in 2021 is set to reach $215 billion – a massive increase from the $17.8 billion predicted this year.

While games like Pokémon Go make it easy to believe that AR is only good for entertainment purposes, it’s actually proving to be a huge hit in helping people develop new skills and advance in the workplace.

In a ISACA survey, 64% of US consumers believe that AR enhancements would benefit the workplace, while a further 69% believed that this kind of technology could help them learn new skills.

This is where SketchAR comes into play.

In the past, learning a new skill meant going to an evening class or taking a course. This equated to spending money and having to give up precious time, which probably put a lot of people off.

However, with the birth of AR apps like this, people can learn a new skill from the comfort of their own home whenever they want – it sounds like a win-win situation, right?

Most people would agree.

It could be argued that AR has opened up a new era for computing which goes beyond the limits of a small screen. Maybe in the not-too-distant future we won’t see workers at desktop computers anymore and will instead see them wearing headsets that let them interact with data and information in real-time right before their very eyes.

But on the flipside of this there are – as always – causes for concern. Just like there is with any new technology – especially ones that rely on mixed reality.

Because it is finely attuned to the real-world, AR usually has access to location information of its users. Take Pokémon Go again, which offered up different kinds of Pokémon depending on where the user was. This led to a spate of news reports about robbers who had used the game to lure unsuspecting players to specific spots to steal from them.

And, because AR operates in both the real and the digital worlds, there are concerns about the digital side of things, too.

The ISACA report shows that a large percentage of consumers are very or somewhat concerned that AR enhancements make their devices more vulnerable to privacy breaches.

It seems hard to equate hacking and data breaches with a seemingly harmless app that teaches people how to draw better. But when you think that new technologies like AR need new processes and new systems in order to keep operating at their best, there’s bound to be some pushback from the general public.

Sure, SketchAR may well make an artist out of you yet, but is that all it does?

So far, so good.

If you want a quick and easy way to sketch a picture of your dog for your mom’s birthday, SketchAR might just be the thing you need. But with AR technology advancing by what feels like the day, we’ll be keeping a close eye on what it’s going to help us do in the future.

Because after all, once we’ve mastered the paintbrush like Picasso, what’s next?