170
8 How Society Works
everyone who posts something should have to declare the category of the information. Such categories could, for example, be: facts, opinions and advertisements.
Facts would need to be potentially falsifiable and corroborated by publically accessible evidence. In contrast, a subjective assessment of people, products or events
would be considered to be an opinion. Finally, advertisements would need to include
an acknowledgement of potential personal or third-party benefits. Ratings would
always be categorized as opinions. If people would use the wrong categories or post
false information (as identified and reported by, say, 10 others), their online reputation would be reduced by a certain amount (say, by a factor of 2). Mechanisms such
as these would help to ensure that manipulation or cheating wouldn’t pay off.
Furthermore, one should ensure the right of informational self-determination,
such that individuals are able to determine the way their personal information (such
as social, economic, health, or private information) is used. This could be realized
with a Personal Data Store.
35 In particular, a person should be able to stipulate
the purpose and period of time for which their information is accessible and to
whom (everyone, non-profit organizations, commercial companies, friends, family
members or particular individuals, for example). These settings would enable a select
group of individuals, institutions, or corporations to access certain personal information, as determined by the users. Of course, one might also decide not to reveal any
personal information at all. However, I expect that having a reputation for something
would be better for most people than having no digital image, if only to find people
who share similar preferences and tastes.
8.20 Appendix 2: Towards Distributed Security, Based
on Self-Organization
Let me finally address the question whether bottom-up self-organization is dangerous
for society? In fact, since the Arab Spring, governments all over the world are afraid
of “twitter revolutions”. Therefore, are social media destabilizing political systems?
Do governments need to censor free speech or control the algorithms that spread
messages through social media platforms? Probably not. First, the Arab Spring was
triggered by high food prices,
36 i.e. deprivation, and not by anarchism. Second,
encroaching on free speech would obstruct our society’s ability to innovate and to
detect and address problems early on.
But how to reach a high level of security in a system which is based on the
principle of distributed bottom-up self-organization? Let me give an example. One
35 World Economic Forum, Personal Data: The Emergence of a New Asset Class, see http://www.
weforum.org/reports/personal-data-emergence-new-asset-class and also de Montjoye et al. [27].
36 See, for example, https://www.voanews.com/middle-east/2011-food-price-spikes-helped-tri
gger-arab-spring-researchers-say, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/world-july-dec11-food_0
9-07/,
https://www.vice.com/en/article/3dd3py/high-food-prices-are-fueling-egypts-riotsandthose-in-brazil-turkey-and-syria.
8 How Society Works
everyone who posts something should have to declare the category of the information. Such categories could, for example, be: facts, opinions and advertisements.
Facts would need to be potentially falsifiable and corroborated by publically accessible evidence. In contrast, a subjective assessment of people, products or events
would be considered to be an opinion. Finally, advertisements would need to include
an acknowledgement of potential personal or third-party benefits. Ratings would
always be categorized as opinions. If people would use the wrong categories or post
false information (as identified and reported by, say, 10 others), their online reputation would be reduced by a certain amount (say, by a factor of 2). Mechanisms such
as these would help to ensure that manipulation or cheating wouldn’t pay off.
Furthermore, one should ensure the right of informational self-determination,
such that individuals are able to determine the way their personal information (such
as social, economic, health, or private information) is used. This could be realized
with a Personal Data Store.
35 In particular, a person should be able to stipulate
the purpose and period of time for which their information is accessible and to
whom (everyone, non-profit organizations, commercial companies, friends, family
members or particular individuals, for example). These settings would enable a select
group of individuals, institutions, or corporations to access certain personal information, as determined by the users. Of course, one might also decide not to reveal any
personal information at all. However, I expect that having a reputation for something
would be better for most people than having no digital image, if only to find people
who share similar preferences and tastes.
8.20 Appendix 2: Towards Distributed Security, Based
on Self-Organization
Let me finally address the question whether bottom-up self-organization is dangerous
for society? In fact, since the Arab Spring, governments all over the world are afraid
of “twitter revolutions”. Therefore, are social media destabilizing political systems?
Do governments need to censor free speech or control the algorithms that spread
messages through social media platforms? Probably not. First, the Arab Spring was
triggered by high food prices,
36 i.e. deprivation, and not by anarchism. Second,
encroaching on free speech would obstruct our society’s ability to innovate and to
detect and address problems early on.
But how to reach a high level of security in a system which is based on the
principle of distributed bottom-up self-organization? Let me give an example. One
35 World Economic Forum, Personal Data: The Emergence of a New Asset Class, see http://www.
weforum.org/reports/personal-data-emergence-new-asset-class and also de Montjoye et al. [27].
36 See, for example, https://www.voanews.com/middle-east/2011-food-price-spikes-helped-tri
gger-arab-spring-researchers-say, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/world-july-dec11-food_0
9-07/,
https://www.vice.com/en/article/3dd3py/high-food-prices-are-fueling-egypts-riotsandthose-in-brazil-turkey-and-syria.