Web3 is the latest Silicon Valley buzzword, referring to a third iteration of the internet built on blockchain technology. Backers say it will reinvent cyberspace but scepticism is growing. Host Kenneth Cukier investigates the hype and the potential.

In 2021, the European Commission presented a vision and avenues for Europe’s digital transformation by 2030. The Commission proposes a Digital Compass for the EU's digital decade that evolves around four cardinal points: Skills, Infrastructure, Business, and Government.

The global pandemic has heightened our understanding and sense of importance of our own health and the fragility of healthcare systems around the world. We’ve all come to realize how archaic many of our health processes are, and that, if we really want to, we can move at lightning speed. This is already leading to a massive acceleration in both the investment and application of artificial intelligence in the health and medical ecosystems.

We have seen that privacy, personal data, and the user-held data discussion have changed significantly during the last few years. At the same time, wearable devices have come to the mainstream. People are interested in collecting their wellness and health data and making their lives better. Let’s quickly look at developments in 2021 and the outlook for the year 2022.

The control of personal data is critical and sacred to our human autonomy, self determination and ability to advance ourselves. This is especially relevant of our children’s data and their digital foot print.

The Lancet and Financial Times Commission on governing health futures 2030: growing up in a digital world argues digital transformations should be considered as a key determinant of health. But the Commission also presses for a radical rethink on digital technologies, highlighting that without a precautionary, mission-oriented, and value-based approach to its governance, digital transformations will fail to bring about improvements in health for all.

While they wrestle with the immediate danger posed by hackers today, US government officials are preparing for another, longer-term threat: attackers who are collecting sensitive, encrypted data now in the hope that they'll be able to unlock it at some point in the future.

In the era of data abundance, it’s easy to think of these bytes as a panacea but without the right systems in place, we cannot realize the full potential of data to advance a sustainable, equitable and inclusive future.

A new study commissioned by DIGITALEUROPE and conducted by Frontier Economics shows that our policy decisions on international data transfers now will have significant effects on growth and jobs across the whole European economy by 2030, impacting Europe’s Digital Decade goals: The EU can be €2 trillion better off by 2030 if we secure cross-border data transfers.

Since September 2020, the Independent Panel has systematically, rigorously and comprehensively examined why COVID-19 became a global health and socio-economic crisis. Now it presented its findings and recommendations for action to curb the COVID-19 pandemic and to ensure that any future infectious disease outbreak does not become another catastrophic pandemic.

Leveling Playing Field between Humans and Algorithms: a conversation with Peter Cotton, Ph.D. (Stanford), who spent his 20+ years career leading AI and ML initiatives at major US banks.

This was such a treat to read and was quite interesting to imagine how as MyData community we can envision new imaginaries: "I suggest that these struggles and reactions are openings for thinking about different data futures through what I call an experiment in citizen data. It is an experiment that reconsiders relations between states, citizens and digital technologies in the production of data and statistics by imagining a new political subjectivity, that of the data citizen."

For the Global Technology Governance Summit, on 6-7 April 2021 six experts were asked: What is the key issue in data policy that is top of mind for you right now?

Axel Voss, one of the fathers of the General Data Protection Regulation, told the Financial Times that it needs to be revised to take into account not only the widespread move to homeworking, but also the emergence of a host of new technologies.
(original article in Financial Times - paywalled)

From Ben Evans: "Covid brought shock and a lot of broken habits to tech, but mostly, it accelerates everything that was already changing. For that and lots of other reasons, tech is becoming a regulated industry, but if we step over the slogans, what does that actually mean? Tech is entering its second 50 years."

The report is looking at how data and technology are shaping the future of vulnerability, particularly through new forms of inequality, intrusion and insecurity. It calls for civil society, technologists and leaders across sectors and community to come together to develop and promote ‘humanity first’ approaches to frontier technologies.

A Nature survey shows many scientists expect the virus that causes COVID-19 to become endemic, but it could pose less danger over time.

In an exclusive interview, Apple’s CEO talks about how privacy threats change behavior, tech’s role in igniting extremism, and why “Big Tech” is a misnomer.

Employers will likely collect more data as employees return to work, requiring risk management leaders to balance safety, productivity and privacy. (scary prediction: by 2025, 75% of conversations at work will be recorded and analyzed, enabling the discovery of added organizational value or risk.)

A great summary of the Nine Key Themes one of our invited presenters at MyData 2020 Onlince Conference Sangeet Paul Choudary have been working on during this year.

Dr Nicholas Christakis writes that after this pandemic people will seek extensive social interactions and predicts a second “roaring 20s”. Will privacy concerns and willingness to share data also change after the current pandemic is over?

A vintage article from 1997 about personal data in HBR: "As consumers take control of information about themselves, companies will have to pay for it."

The living, the dead and the unborn are all here with us: we must respect their interests and their world as much as our own.

Especially relevant for MyData are: Urbanization: Two-thirds of us will live in cities; Transparency: Our world will become even more open — and less private; Technology Shifts: The internet of things will have won the day, and every new device will be connected.

A little-known start-up helps law enforcement match photos of unknown people to their online images — and “might lead to a dystopian future or something,” a backer says.

Learn how the extractive attention economy is tearing apart our shared social fabric and causing human downgrading. Find out how to build humane technology.

Our annual list of the trends, social movements and technological breakthroughs set to impact our lives over the next twelve months.

How does your ideal digital future look like? Explore four scenarios on different data governance models and how this might shape our future.

World Economic Forum: As technology continues to permeate society, surviving the future depends on bringing technologists and policymakers together. Here's how we might achieve it.

The Guardian has spent the past three months investigating how billions are being poured into AI innovations that are explosively recasting how low-income people interact with the state. Together, our reporters in the US, Britain, India and Australia have explored what amounts to the birth of the digital welfare state.

Our digital environment is changing, fast. Nobody knows exactly what it’ll look like in five to ten years’ time, but we know that how we produce and share our data will change where we end up. We have to decide how to protect, enhance, and preserve our rights in a world where technology is everywhere and data is generated by every action.

Privacy International discusses data futures, and encourages people to join their local MyData hub.