In the previous article, "Personal data are outlawed" it was described how everyone, in theory, has a personal graph. This graph can be built up from existing graphs such as the link, social, and interest graph.
This is a translated article of https://sebastix.nl/blog/jouw-personal-graph/ where I used https://ppq.ai.
In this article, Sebastian Hagens will further explain what a personal graph exactly contains, what data it can hold, what interests can be served with it, and how you can already start building your own personal graph. Subsequently, he will offer a vision on the place of personal data within future generations of the internet.
Relationships
In principle, a wide variety of data can belong to the personal graph. The only and self-evident condition is that the data has a relationship with you as a person. These can be different types of relationships. A few examples: regarding a text on an internet page, you can be the author or you can have found it as a reader via Google. With a person, you can have a family relationship or they can be your colleague or employer, etc. These relationships between you and the data determine the context. These are just a few simple examples. The infographic below (source: Personal Data Ecosystem) shows that an individual personal graph can unlock even more data digitally.
Data "Free"?
I (Sebastian Hagens) am a proponent of the concept data wants to be free within systems and large networks. When data is free, it offers several advantages. Almost exactly the same data can be found in different locations and are thus more or less location-independent. Even though these data take up enormous proportions in systems - a disadvantage - location independence is consistent with the idea that data wants to be free. However, this clashes with the fact that data also represents a financial value.
Many of our data that we leave behind on the internet today are not free. They are locked up in systems, and it takes a lot of effort to extract them if we wanted to. Within these systems, data represents a lot of value for the administrators, but hardly any value for the end-users who are the source of all that data. I predict that this will increasingly cause tension. End-users will become frustrated because it becomes almost impossible (especially for non-specialists) to oversee and manage all that data. The fact that we have to log in every time to register for internet sessions takes up valuable time and causes quite a bit of annoyance. With a personal graph, you could solve this problem. In that personal graph, you would only need to add certain data once, after which you can simply select what you want to do with it. For example, sharing a set of photos on Facebook and Twitter, or updating your address data in three web shops when you've moved.
Building a Personal Graph as a central source
Data in the personal graph must be easily reusable (see also "The DataPortability Project"). The number of new internet services is growing rapidly, and every time you have to re-enter the same data to get started. When such a new service asks for certain information, you can choose to have it retrieved from your personal graph without having to re-enter everything. This is what 1Password and LastPass do with all personal login credentials on websites.
To build a personal graph, it's useful to start with the various social media services. These often have an API (application programmable interface) that allows raw data to be easily retrieved. The following applications make smart use of this to retrieve and store all personal data as a backup.
Backupify makes backups of all your social data in the cloud. You can do this with your Twitter, LinkedIn, Gmail, Facebook, Google contacts, Flickr, and more.
With SocialSafe, you can retrieve all your Facebook and Twitter data. This data is stored locally, and then a digital diary is created from it.
HVSbackup is a simple-to-use application that downloads and stores all your Hyves data on your computer. (HVSbackup is an application created by the author of this article)
With Greplin, you can search your digital life. You do this by linking different profiles, such as your email, Dropbox, or Facebook, to Greplin.
Storing Your Own Data in the "Cloud"
When you start collecting data from various services, you'll need to decide where to store it. The most obvious choice is to store it on your computer's hard drive, DVD, or external hard drive, because:
These objects are actually your property They are only accessible to you They are located in only one place and are therefore difficult for third parties to access You have full control over what you do with these objects Data is not locked up because you have all the rights to do something with it
However, it must be said that physical storage devices are becoming less prominent, and more and more data is being stored in the "cloud." This carries the risk that we are giving up more and more control and privacy in exchange for that storage. At the same time, it raises the question of why there is still no cloud storage that offers the same guarantees as storing data on the aforementioned physical storage devices. Such a decentralized location in the "cloud" should house all individual data, the personal graph, and simultaneously ensure manageability and privacy.
Digital locker
The [Personal Data Ecosystem Consortium](http://personaldataecosystem.org/) is particularly interested in this matter. They make the issue transparent and put the end-user at the center, along with their personal data. However, the development is still in its infancy due to complexity. Below are a few initiatives that are pioneering within this data ecosystem. They offer different solutions, but the end-user is always at the center and has the ability to use their personal data according to the principles that fit the [Personal Data Ecosystem](http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_ITTC_PersonalDataNewAsset_Report_2011.pdf). You can call it a [personal data store](https://vimeo.com/14061238) , a digital safe, or a digital vault. All are capable of unlocking the personal graph.
This project is still in an experimental phase, with many contributors. A Locker is a sort of digital safe where you, as the end-user, are fully in control of your personal data. You can manage your own data collections, choose which connections to set up with services, and install applications that use your data. Your Locker also has its own API.
For several years, this independent Dutch initiative in Boxtel has been building a robust, secure solution to give every user their own Qiy. Qiy is an independent "trusted framework" where your data is stored. Within this domain, you determine what an organization can do with this information. You decide what goes into your Qiy and what comes out.
Azigo is your digital data wallet. Instead of paying with money, you pay with your own data in exchange for personalized information, services, or offers.
Personal offers an environment where you can store and categorize all your digital data. What you can do with it afterwards is not yet clear.
This project positions itself as a meta-service. That means Unhosted is a service/protocol, just like email. Unhosted aims to separate the application from the data. Applications can communicate with locations where end-users' data is stored using the Unhosted service.
OwnCloud is your own cloud, which you install on a server (just like installing a WordPress blog). This seems very similar to what The Locker Project has in mind.
The Personal Graph Becomes the holy grail
Whether one of the above applications will be the solution for the future cannot be determined yet. However, I am convinced that they have a right to exist within a next phase of internet development (web 4.0?). In the coming years, everyone will increasingly realize that our personal data is becoming more valuable. It is therefore important that we maintain control and insight over it. From this position, the end-user will be much better able to use the right data that fits their wishes and needs. For marketers and advertisers, this means that they will have to position themselves differently. They will have to clearly indicate what they can offer and what data they need for it. The personal graph is becoming the holy grail.
This development will also lead to a new generation of applications. Applications that start from the end-user and their personal graph. Below is an example of such an application: RootApp (this is an application of the author of this article).
With this application, you make a connection with every profile you have on a service and retrieve all your personal information. From this overview, you can easily manage all this data.
The applications that fit web3.0 (see image below) are also getting more right to exist and are becoming less dependent on the large internet services like Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
The existence of the internet is in danger due to the dominant centralization of data and commercial interests of the large internet giants. If this trend remains dominant, we will be trapped in the systems of gigantic organizations in the future. They will increasingly emerge as Big Brother on the internet. It is unrealistic to assume that they will automatically satisfy our wishes and needs, no matter how wonderful their products may be. The interests of their business model are simply elsewhere. It is therefore up to us to watch over personal data and keep the direction as much as possible to ourselves. The personal data ecosystem is a thought that helps us with these goals. Although it will still take some time, a new type of web with users and their personal graphs is coming.