“Increased interoperability—and decreased corporate power—opens policy space for real privacy remedies, ones that treat technology users as citizens with rights, not merely as consumers who can make purchase-decisions.”

Does the internet have to be ‘five giant websites, each filled with screenshots of text from the other four?’ 

In this important report from the Electronic Foundation Frontier (EFF), staff technologist Bennett Cyphers and award-winning author and special advisor to EFF Cory Doctorow explore the questionable relationship of big tech monopoly and online privacy. Cyphers and Doctorow offer an image of a world in which interoperability, if done correctly, can foster competition, promote innovation and protect privacy rights by giving users more control over their data.

Report: https://www.eff.org/wp/interoperability-and-privacy.

Additional resources:

• Book summary ‘How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism’: https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59 
• Wired Article ‘Why it’s easier to move country than switch social media’: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/social-media-competitive-compatibility 
• Podcast ‘Big Tech and a Decade of Antitrust with Cory Doctorow’: https://hbr.org/podcast/2021/01/big-tech-and-a-decade-of-antitrust-with-cory-doctorow
• You can also watch Cory Doctorow’s keynote speech at WEDF 2021 ‘Privacy, Interoperability & the Rewilding of the Internet’ (accessible to WEDF 2021 ticket-holders and WEDF members via the WEDF 2021 platform. See more about how to become a member here)

Join the crucial discussion, challenge your friends with the #WEDFReadingChallenge and get the chance to win a free WEDF Membership:

(1) Complete this week’s reading!

(2) Share your participation sharing this on your social media:

I'm joining the #WEDFReadingChallenge. This week we're reading #Privacy without #Monopoly by @EFF’s @doctorow & Bennett Cyphers

(3) Tag a friend & challenge them to take part!