30 Nov Take responsibility, rise from the ashes!

Recently interviewed by Jonathan Margolis of the Financial Times, Chair of Technical Innovation Board Scentrics, Professor John Shawe-Taylor had some fascinating insights to share in the article “Tech veterans bring back the original optimism of the internet” (FT, 28 Nov 2018).

With 2018 proving to be a wild ride for Internet privacy, smacking us all between the eyes for the sheer scale of the data breaches and brazen misuse of personal data we have all suffered, John and founder at Scentrics, Paran Chandreskaran, are building a company that can turn the tide of negativity about the Internet and help deliver back control over our own online experience.

As John points out in the article, astonishing advances in technology like Machine Learning have meant massive steps forward in our understanding of data with huge positive implications for many things for the human good, health data, drug development, global communication and new inventions but it has also brought the fake news, privacy problems and seemingly insurmountable data insecurities.   An agonising realisation for the brilliant minds that helped build the Internet.

These same minds can now take responsibility and use what they know to help the Internet and personal data crisis turn around and rise from the ashes.  New ways of separating storage of encrypted data from keys have arrived and can even allow users control and choice over what data they share.

It’s a new dawn and, just maybe, in 2019 the Internet phoenix will rise from the ashes.