Telefonica warned during Mobile World Congress this week that the Internet has a growing trust problem, and that measures must be taken to make the Web more transparent about how personal data is us ed.
The Spanish incumbent’s research and development arm, Telefonica I+D, is a founding member of the Data Transparency Lab (DTL), a group tasked with highlighting and addressing this issue. Other participants include Mozilla, MIT’s Media Lab, and the Open Data Institute (ODI), among others.
"A lot of people are starting to be concerned about how their data is used," said David del Val, CEO of Telefonica I+D.
He pointed out to Total Telecom that browser plugin AdBlock, which as the name suggests blocks Website adverts, has been downloaded 20 million times, while the Firefox Web browser’s ‘Do Not Track’ button is used by 14% of U.S. Internet users.
"The Web economy is based on trust," he said, adding that personal data must be used wisely. "If nothing is done, the Web will no longer be a trustworthy place and then everybody loses: advertisers, carriers, people."
The DTL held its inaugural workshop late last year, during which members highlighted the scale of the problem and showed off some of the tools they have developed to help inform consumers about how their data can be used, and in some cases abused, by online service providers.
Indeed, some e-commerce sites have been found to distort prices based on user data. To highlight the issue, the DTL has developed $heriff, a browser add-on that shows when a customer is seeing a different price for the same product, on sale from the same company, based on their location and browsing history.
"People need to have more control over their digital trace," said Arkadiusz Stopcznski, a postdoctoral fellow at MIT Media Lab who specialises in human dynamics.
The DTL has also established a grant scheme that will fund research into improving data transparency. It aims to award up to 10 grants this year, and each will be sufficient to support a research team for at least one year.
"Trust is important to ensuring the continued growth of the Internet," said Chris Riley, head of public policy at Mozilla. Improving it starts with educating consumers about how their data is used, he said.
"The threat is real," added Pablo Rodriguez, director of Telefonica I+D’s Barcelona facility. He said that if 5% of revenue-generating users decide to block advertising, online advertising revenues could fall by a quarter.
