Comment by amelius
2 hours ago
We should really move to a different security model on the internet.
For example, when I buy something from a webshop, why does that webshop need my personal information? Why can't I give it a token, which it can then use to send my package, because only the postal system knows the address coupled to the token, etc.
And we should also ban user tracking for advertising purposes, obviously.
I think all of this dead end: it is like protecting your apartment only by strong locks etc. Modern society protects from crime using punishment and moral norms. Not only by locks.
> And we should also ban user tracking for advertising purposes, obviously.
This is the primary economic model of the internet, unfortunately, and thus the reason for all the internet collection you described.
Anything that adds friction is a big no-go in any real commerce world.
Friction ... Like being hacked, or having your customer's personal or financial details compromised?
Properly implemented, it's less friction than the current model.
Just like how Apple Pay is less friction for online purchases than entering my credit card info is. Take that a step further where Apple can supply personal information JIT for shipping.
Yeah, the workflows need manual overrides for things like different billing vs shipping addresses, etc. But the happy path can be streamlined.
We are working on this better model in the Ethereum ecosystem via technologies like Zero Knowledge Proofs and private attestations. The Ethereum Attestation Service has been using the example of proving to the bartender that you are over 21 without disclosing your birth date. https://docs.attest.org/docs/core--concepts/privacy
This is all new and rapidly evolving technology but giving apps / agents / others just the information they need to know while having a credibly neutral, private, and trustless database mediating is a true cypherpunk vision of how the internet should work and it's being built by people with the right ethos and principles to be as reliable, well engineered, and long lasting as the internet itself.
Where did the OP even ask for a "trustless database" or "cyberpunk" or anything like that?
It is perfectly reasonable for the delivery service to be trusted. After all, they're going to take the physical package, so the business must trust them, and need to know where to deliver it, so the individual must trust them. An individual can request a token for the business and the delivery service can validate it, without the address ever being given to the business.
None of this requires a blockchain to make it slower and inexplicably public.
What kind of political / economic system would make user privacy a priority? I'm guessing not finance capital neoliberalism...
Shift liability to those who store and sell data. They get full economic responsibility for fallout of breaches of data that is retained past the time necessary to complete the transactions. If they sell the data then they hold liability for all breaches of downstream parties as well. Require them to carry insurance against breaches.
It would completely destroy the data brokers and targeted ad industry but the world would be a better place as a result. Also not going to happen but I can dream.
"As compensation for leaking your personal data, best I can do is...one year of Equifax monitoring."
Finance follows the risks and the users.
We'll probably never convince end-users to "vote with their feet" and use Privacy-focused products. But we can absolutely, through legislation or just precedent, raise the Risk profile until it's better to leave the ad revenue on the table and run a private service.
Gotta be able to stop fraudulent payments while maintaining privacy before ecommerce would have any interest in adopting a more private system.
I've worked at plenty of companies that have no interest in tracking their customers but still need to be able to pin IDs to credit cards, etc. to have any hope of stopping mountains of fraud.
We've already moved away from sites storing credit card information, because the risk of storing it yourself is simply too high. We need to make the stakes higher for other personal information.