Services are getting more centralized and owned by the same small group of technology giants. This centralization is creating closed ecosystems where the technology giants have control over how we use the communication platforms or tools, what is being said and who can have access to this content, this is also known as a walled garden. To opt out of these walled gardens and increase our autonomy, privacy and limit our data shadow it is good to take a look at the services that we are using and see if the following principles can be matched to them.
Free and Open Source
When a service, app, operating system or tool is proprietary this means that the technology behind it, also known as the code or software, is not open. It gives the user the right to use it under specific conditions and limits the ability of people to share, modify or study it. More specifically, this means that we have very little control over how we can use it or on what of our data we give up by agreeing to the specific license or terms of service. This is different to open source projects, which usually started in a public and collaborative manner and where the code behind the project is available under a license. This means that the projects can be peer reviewed and audited by the community. Then there is a distinction between free and open source projects. As advocated by the free software movement, “free software” means that users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. This gives us more autonomy over the software that we use.
Privacy by Design
There are several measures user can take to enhance their privacy. However, if you do not have to give personal data to be able to use a specific tool or service companies can't collect it and in theory we would not have to take these privacy enhancing measures. The principle to integrate privacy in the development of the technology is called Privacy by Design.
Diversification and decentralization
Since the rise of the internet we have seen the rise of a limited number of technology giants. These are companies that offer different popular services in exchange for our attention and our data. These technology giants have become central nodes and the gatekeepers of the internet. We actively an passively use their services, most of the time without even realizing it as in the case of third party trackers. In other cases we are encouraged to access the internet, commercial and government services through them. All these aspects of the technology giants leave us with less chance to opt out. To break these centralized services it is important that the principle of diversification and decentralization of online tools and services is stimulated.
Interoperability
For diversification the principle of interoperability between different services, tools and operating systems is key. Email is a good example of interoperability, there are many different email providers, ranging from free commercial email, privacy enhancing email to running your own mail server. No matter which option we choose, we are able to communicate with all other email providers. Social media platforms are in general not inter operable. These platforms are “walled gardens” which do not want their users to talk to people who are using another service. For popular social media websites this means that you can only opt out of the entire conversation and this is not a real option for many people. Users remain locked into this walled garden till the platform becomes less popular.
Ability to transfer our content
Being able to transfer our content to another service provider is another important principle for diversification. We invest time, energy, network and our digital history in using a specific service online. The mobile phone is a good example of being able to transfer this. We can change providers but keep the same phone number, transfer the content of the SIM card and history of the phone to either your computer or new phone. In this case we can transfer the things we find important without loosing to much, making it easier to change between different devices and service providers.
