Who has control of data in Web 3.0?

Are you frustrated by your data being owned by someone else? Is the ownership of your data something that is important to you? Most people in western countries agree that they want to own their own data, but what does that mean and will that change with web 3.0?

One of the complaints about web 2.0 is that users do not own their own data. The large platforms (social media and search) that dominate web 2.0 own a lot of data about you, what you like and dislike so that they can better serve you content. This has led to the explosion in web 2.0 platforms that are centralised and are free but this is because you are essentially the product. For example a large social media platform is free for the users, they generate revenue (at least at the time of writing this article in early 2022) by selling ads to people who want you to be aware of your business.

Web 3.0 is based on the idea that control of the system will be decentralised. An ideal of the system is that the data that you generate will be owned by you in a web 3.0 eco-system. For those people who want to own their data and don’t want it owned by a third party this is an attractive element of web 3.0 and something that should be applauded.

Ultimately whether this will be how web 3.0 develops will depend on the business models that come to dominate the web 3.0 ecosystem. It is very likely that they will own some data about you and that they will use that to sell ads to you (for example a metaverse). However it is likely that you will have more control over that data and there will be elements of the web 3.0 ecosystem that do allow you to own your data.

This is an area that we will be watching closely so be sure to subscribe to our newsletter.