Transcriber: Sophie McCarty Reviewer: Michele Gianella
The theme of “confine” is a very inspirational one.
It can have a lot of interpretation, the word "confine" -
I would say, more in Italian than in English.
So I decided to simplify
how I would interpret the theme of the TEDx edition CONFINE
with a particular meaning in English
that is border, barrier, limits.
And which limits and borders am I going to talk to you about?
The limits and the borders that go with the use of these devices:
the digital space.
The digital space is built in a kind of environment
where there is an invisible border.
And the invisible border is built by technology,
because when we use these devices and we consume a digital service,
we are a user.
We see an interface.
We see a screen.
We can touch the screen.
But we don't know what happens behind the screen,
what technologies exist beyond those screens.
And am I really understanding the complexity
of how the internet platform works?
Hmm.
Difficult.
On the other side of the screen - the part that I am not aware of -
there are businesses, companies, entrepreneurs - like me.
I'm a technologist and an entrepreneur, and I'm a privacy activist.
As you've seen in my biography, I am very much involved in a project
that you will understand during my talk.
What it does, has an impact on your life
and we hope to make a big impact on your life.
So let's go back to the theme of the confine:
this invisible border
between the services that you consume
and the technologies that make it possible.
The people that use the services,
and the companies that supply the services,
and then think of how it works for you daily:
you open a website, you open an application,
you click on the phone,
and some services become available.
And the moment you click, the moment you watch,
the moment you take a picture and you send it,
the moment you write an email,
the moment you purchase a good:
all those clicks are a data set that goes somewhere.
It's going to some place.
But you don't know where those data are going.
You don't know who is watching those data,
and you do not know if those data will stay in one place
or will go in multiple places.
You don't know, or few of you may know
because they have some curiosity, some interest.
Well, you would be surprised to discover
that if the human being, it's minded
to go beyond, to explore, to discover.
Actually, with technology,
human beings don't want to explore, don't want to discover,
they don't want to know.
Technology is intimidating.
Technology is complex.
Business models that use this technology are very hard to understand.
And you know what happens, with a human being's behavior?
The easier the service, the better.
So what is my experience as a user?
I see a screen, I see a few icons, I don't question what happens after.
I look at what it gives me - a satisfaction in front of the interface.
And why this is a problem -
and I'm really drawing to your attention that this is a problem?
The fact that you don't know
the basics of how the internet works,
and the how the value creation happens in the digital space,
which is with your data and with your information,
it is what it's making your relationship
with all the companies
which provide you the services through these devices,
very asymmetric.
They know everything about you. You know nothing about them!
Sometimes you don't even have a phone number to call them,
but they pile up every day,
every time you click on a web page or an application,
a little tiny information about you.
And they use it
because this is the way the internet works.
The Internet needs to create conditions for data to be observed.
But who produces the data?
All of us.
How often?
Every second, including when we sleep:
there are applications that measure when you sleep.
There are applications that follow and try and track you
every single little second of your life.
And what I would like to draw your attention to,
It's not that there is a fundamental wrong story behind this.
What is not right is that people don't know
that the biggest value creation online
depends on us, on what we do online.
The engagement - companies call it the engagement:
they measure you by what you do, how often,
how many times you repeat the same conversion.
Conversion is an action that you perform,
that was exactly the one the company wanted you to do.
So they induce you to do what they want you to do,
which is to create conversions.
So I am not criticizing the system
because it's wrong.
And again, I'm not saying that we don't love these things.
I mean, they changed our life from a variety of perspectives.
Internet, connectivity, applications, web, mobile.
They are all creating so many opportunities for humanity
that it's not debatable that it's an evolution,
that humanity it's worth spending efforts on.
But,
we have a very big problem to face:
if five plus billion people in the world
use technologies such as mobile, web, wearable, internet of Things,
smart phones, computers, set boxes, connected cars, connected devices.
Your fridge is going to be connected, your alarm at home is connected.
Your bed can even be connected, your shower can be connected.
So imagine this immense set of things that can be connected,
and only a little fraction of the world knows how this works,
and how to extract a value out of it.
Wouldn't you think that there is a problem of asymmetry
as to why that little fraction of players knows everything about everybody
and all the others ignore everything?
So this is actually what I would like to draw your attention to.
This asymmetry - is it because of the lack of knowledge,
or is it because of the lack of awareness?
Or is it because we are a little bit lazy?
Because intellectually speaking,
it's a lot easier to have an interface which is very easy to use
and not to question what happens behind
where you need to find a way
to awaken yourself about what happens behind.
What happens behind is very simple.
Data are taken to create products and services,
and you are going to use these products and services.
You are implicitly working for the companies
that produce these products and services.
You want to be part of this value chain.
You want to be playing
to influence the direction in which this value chain is going.
But you cannot do it
if you are not taking back what is yours,
which is your own data,
which is the control on what happens to these data.
So Europeans - and in particular, the European Union -
has put a very big effort into developing and designing laws
that most of you must have heard about:
GDPR.
GDPR has set very interesting limits to companies,
rights to users, but also limits to users
because there are limitations to what you can do with your data.
But there are no limitations to how you choose,
whether you want to share or you don't want to share.
It is a really, really important law.
It's becoming the golden standard around the world.
GDPR has completely shifted the ownership of the data
from the companies to the people.
And why is this relevant for you?
Because we are building the connected society,
we are thinking of adopting massive usage of technology
in healthcare, in the education sector,
in security, in transportation.
Plus, we know all the rest that we've got already:
payments, entertainment, music streaming, video streaming.
But these are a little bit more of the surface thing,
because this is more the enjoyable part of the internet.
Think more of the other use cases in which you live in a country
and your health services are coming with connected devices,
and your data - your health data - need to be treated in a certain way.
So why am I calling on an action for all of you to become aware?
The European laws, GDPR, has set a framework
which is to give roots,
to give a road, a pass for citizens and for people
to grab the opportunity which is given back to them
to take control of their data.
But it depends on us to grab it and do it
because the companies will not do it for us,
but the companies - and this is really how I will close my talk -
remember, this is a two sided business model:
on one side, you have the users and the actions they do on the service.
They generate the data that are taken by the company
to be monetized to build products, services and profitability.
So the good news is
that the companies cannot do it without you and your data.
So if you start having a relationship with the companies
where you stand up and you ask for respect
and you ask for a peer to peer type of relationship with them,
which you can do thanks to the privacy laws,
then this is the game changer.
The game changer is about users having more rights than companies
to allocate how to use the data.
Companies cannot override anymore
the fundamental right that we have to our privacy.
Thank you.
(Applause)