Trust & Internet Data

Our guest today is Michael Kende. He has a Ph.D. in economics from MIT and is a Digital Development consultant at the World Bank Group, a Senior Advisor at Analysys Mason, and the Board Chair of the Datasphere Initiative and until recently Chief Economist of the Internet Society. He has done a significant amount of work on promoting Internet development in emerging regions around the world. He works on the economics of cybersecurity, as a means to reduce data breaches and increase trust in the Internet.

The Internet has brought us numerous free services like contacting people, creating online content, video conferencing, sharing videos, communicating, and working online, but it comes at a price, as the data we put online, some of it very personal, raises privacy issues, makes us vulnerable to cyberattacks and results in a concentration of power in large companies and governments. He talks about trust and the privacy paradox and the “flip side” of free services that internet provides.

The way to grow trust is through technology and regulation, giving the example of the automobile industry where in the 60ties there were no safety regulations until Ralph Nader’s book in 1965 “Unsafe at Any Speed”. He talks about the European GDPR Directive, the Data Sphere Initiative, the privacy paradox, and contact tracing apps like the Ehteraz app Qatar required people to use during the Soccer World Cup.

Asked about the Internet of Things (IoT), says Michael that he doesn’t think all of the lessons of the Internet of websites and services online have been learned.