Data is the most valuable commodity of the 21st century. For nearly 20 years, big tech has been downplaying its value in the public's eye while generating untold amounts of profit at the same time. The same way there is a distinction between owning an oil field outright and merely being granted a license to exploit it, we should be very conscious of what we do with our personal data and not give it away to corporations for free.
If personal data is so valuable, we should then treat it like our own personal oil field. By estimating how much future value it contains, we can then demand compensation and assurances of the companies that it will not be abused beyond explicit terms.
The same is true of so-called smart cities. Giving a company carte blanche to build, collect and exploit data in perpetuity, with little to no oversight on how and when this data will be used has long term implications that are as yet poorly understood, so we have every reason to tread carefully. The way to develop smart cities that are beneficial to everyone is to treat the data collected as private (the identifiable stuff) and its aggregate as commons, that nobody can own outright, in order to level the playing field and allow anyone with a good idea to make good use of these data. We should seek out fully open-source standards and demand interoperability instead of closed, proprietary ones.
Now, imagine an open-source smart city where data are shared and marketplace players emulate each other as a way to make a more sustainable built environment a reality so that we ensure to leave the planet better than we found it. Wouldn't that better a better use of the oil field?
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