Tim Berners-Lee Urges Web Users: 'Care About Your Data' (marketwatch.com)

"As the web celebrated its 29th birthday last week, Berners-Lee expressed disappointment with how his invention has turned out," reports MarketWatch. "He criticized Facebook and other tech heavyweights last week, saying they have 'made it possible to weaponize the web at scale.'

"But on Monday, the British computer scientist essentially told Zuck to buck up. 'I would say to him: You can fix it,' Berners-Lee tweeted. 'It won't be easy, but if companies work with governments, activists, academics and web users, we can make sure platforms serve humanity.'"

Tim Berners-Lee writes: This is a serious moment for the web's future. But I want us to remain hopeful. The problems we see today are bugs in the system. Bugs can cause damage, but bugs are created by people, and can be fixed by people.... My message to all web users today is this: I may have invented the web, but you make it what it is. And it's up to all of us to build a web that reflects our hopes & fulfils our dreams more than it magnifies our fears & deepens our divisions... Get involved. Care about your data. It belongs to you.

If we each take a little of the time we spend using the web to fight for the web, I think we'll be ok. Tell companies and your government representatives that your data and the web matter.

Comments

It's not that we don't care ...

[CaptainDork]

... it's that it's way too late to do anything about it.

The Internet is infected with capitalism and there ain't one goddam fucking thing that can be done about it.

Re:It's not that we don't care ...

[DogDude]

There are tons of individual web pages out there that are run by individuals. Tons.

Re:It's not that we don't care ...

[SirAstral]

Is there something you seek to achieve here? No one want's to undo what has been done. They want to take advantage of it... to "capitalize" upon it. Where is your voice? It is nowhere, I do not see a single politician in the news saying we can't undo this, but I do see a lot of them ready to take advantage of it to do something about it.

Your attitude is going to help make sure this problem never goes away and that a politician will be able to capitalize on it in some way and advance new laws that look like they will protect the citizens but will actually burn them instead... like the recent SESTA for example. Tell me, are you one of the majority that thinks America is a democracy?

Re:It's not that we don't care ...

[DogDude]

I don't give two shits about making money. That's not why the web exists.

My point is that not all of the web is shit. There's plenty of non-commercial web out there.

Re:As usual, the ISPs are at fault

[epyT-R]

Even when we had it, ISPs still had no-server clauses in their TOS.

Re:Just use the Web

[nospam007]

"There is absolutely no reason an intelligent, ... would use those services. "

There are 2 billion people on the planet with an IQ below 85 and Facebook has 2 billion users.
Go figure.

DRM?

[lkcl]

are we talking about the same Tim Berners Lee, the one that has corporate sponsors paying him to put DRM into HTML5? why would we listen to him at all?

It's part of a general problem

[DeplorableCodeMonkey]

The public behaves like sheep and demands to be treated with respect...

by wolves.

No issue better illustrates this than gun control. Millions of voters who freak out at the idea of an armed public, taking responsibility for their own safety, etc. I'm not talking ARs in every closet; I'm talking Ms. Sophisticated Urbanite who wets herself at the idea of having a tiny .38 in her purse so she can do more than claw out the eyes of a rapist. Or Mr. Soccer Mom Dad who'd never own a 9mm/.40/.45 he could carry in public or a shotgun in case his home is burgled at night. They seriously believe they should be able to outsource everything to someone else and still not be treated like wards/sheep to be sheered by bad guys and the power structure.

You want to be respected and feared as a group? You have to:

1. Care.
2. Take responsibility.
3. Be willing to do your small part to make bad guys suffer.

I keep saying this

[rsilvergun]

but my online privacy is the least of my worries. I've got robots and H1-Bs coming for my jobs in a society where my entire quality of life depends on it. I've got no reliable access to healthcare and massively increasing drug prices. My country's fighting 8 wars and working on 9 and 10 and we just spend over half our 1.3 trillion budget on said wars. My kid's college costs keep going up and up with no end in sight. Politically I've got gerrymandering, voter suppression, dark money and rising authoritarianism. Oh, and the trade wars and Wallstreet deregulation are about to cause another economic crash...

Besides, there are way, way better ways to oppress me than reading my facebook feed. Just keep letting inflation destroy my wages and put me in a constant state of economic fear. If it's one thing that makes dictatorships easy it's economic calamity.

It's like that XKCD comic about 1024 bit encryption. They're just gonna use a wrench to beat it out of me.

Re:I keep saying this

[thePsychologist]

Hey, but the fact that we are all providing massive amounts of data to online megacorporations is part of the reason why all the money is funneling into the hands of the few in the first place.