Timothy John Berners-Lee, the sixty-five-year-old inventor of the Internet basics and creator of the URI, URL, HTTP, HTML protocols, announces the launch of an enterprise version of the confidential Solid platform, which will allow ordinary users to control their personal data.
According to the “father of the Internet”, the access to the network should be open and free. However, in the past 20 years, large high-tech companies have gained the opportunity to make money from confidential user data. Berners-Lee’s goal is to give Internet users full control over their data, for which the open source Solid project is being brought to the market.
Solid was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the platform will be marketed by Inrupt, a startup founded by Berners-Lee three years ago. The principle of operation is based on the creation of applications by large companies, government agencies and institutions that allow citizens to fully control access to personal data stored in an individual online storage. Personal data can be used by various applications, allowing, for example, to calculate and pay taxes or monitor the user’s health.
To work with personal data, the application asks for permission from the user every time it needs to access them. At any time, the user can close access to any confidential data. The Solid platform is currently used by organizations such as the BBC and the UK’s National Health Service. The platform uses standard technologies and techniques used for creating sites, which makes it possible to use Solid in any browser.
